Psychedelic Soul
by ivybluesummers
Summary: Hinata gets a mission. Jounins discuss the next exams. And the senses intensify at the idle talk of the bodily, while the others pay attention to your weakness. Dedicated to Santeira. COMPLETE.
1. Prologue

Standard disclaimers apply. Reviews/flames appreciated. Apologies to Santeira for this crappy prologue.

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**Psychedelic Soul**

**_Prologue

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_**

"Uhm, happened in Konohagakure; afternoon. Must say it's a rather mundane one, the sun overwhelmed by clouds, and yeah, crisp winds too, as if swaying against people, almost perceivable. A man walks in the distance, and you could see from his eyes a certain kind of resolve. Somewhere, of course in the woods, the kunoichi stretches her right arm while her left foot adjusts, swiveling next and begins concentrating her energy. She steps her right foot forward, her left arm become weightless. Her tresses started to dance with the winds, then the clouds start to thicken, winds become colder this time. You can tell she's chuunin of course. She breathes heavily, and the rain starts to drizzle, and she halts after heaving a sigh; I can tell though she's in some revelry, her eyes closed but smiling nevertheless."

"You're overdoing it. It's... too poetic. I thought it was supposed to be... uh, apparent?"

"Well it's that good if you ask me. Do you want me to continue or not?"

"Uh, go on."

"A kunai flew straight at her, avoiding it just in time to sense another one, and emits her chakra; kunai misses and lands on the softened ground. She tries stretching her sight, but she only creates outlines – shinobi vest, she can tell it was a jounin. She steps backwards. She sees the man, and she stands firm. He asks if she's training or something, like in the exams and she says no, blushing of course, and I can tell the girl's brooding why the man was there."

"How can you tell?"

"I just do. Anyway, the girl can't stare at him and the guy tells her he was visiting a friend and he got lost, and he dunno where to go, it starts to rain and perchance spots her. Actually reminds me of someone."

"Why did he throw kunais at her? Not to test her of course."

"Well, I think he was already attracted to her that he was, uh, how do I put it? Oh yeah, later he confides that he really likes her – that explain why, some sort of flirting I'm sure. Anyhow, the girl finally stares at him, it seemed to show how happy he is, nut desolate and empty altogether. The chuunin says she's trying to mold her chakra; he smiles, and then silence. Only the rain is audible, they stood there, it's kinda crappy to see them just standing there, at least for me. Silence grew uncomfortable and the man walks off, saying she's improved and all, the girl thanks him, the man began again his strides, and the chuunin can only close her eyes as the rains fade, clouds clearing and all, and she's alone again there in the woods, and halts her practice because she doesn't want to anymore."

"Great. Not even a kiss."

"Hell yeah, I thought they're going to do it there, y'know how the toad-man thinks; I think though he's trying not to stigmatize his thing anymore."

"Hey, you didn't even describe the girl."

"Uh, well, let's see, her hair's pretty long, up to her shoulders I think, and she got a pale skin but velvety, she seems to be the simple type but absoluely beautiful, she's not that tall though."

"What was she wearing all the time?"

"She got that usual shinobi shirt, the usual pants but black this time, and she wore some black shirt with sleeves that extended up to her elbows. And, she got a great figure, her dress didn't hide her assets, if you know what I mean. And thank kami-sama for the rains..."

"Of course."

"Well, uh, you... would you go for that type?"

"I have fluidity."

"Eh? If you ask me, I say that type doesn't exists, at least not here. You meet different kinds, but not the perfect ones. Kinda frustrating, and you get to endure the others."

"..."

"But I'd prefer Tsunade-sama,"

"Isn't she half a century old?"

"Doesn't matter. She's probably... ugh... darn,"

"What happens next?"

"Where are we? Oh, the girl doesn't practice anymore. She's obviously distracted and decides to go home. She gets there after some minutes and got welcomed by a messenger, Hokage needs her; she thought it was some C-class mission, turns out she must momentarily teach in the academy because the shinobi in charge's off to Sand to deliver something. Meanwhile, the jounin before, he was taking a shower – something I'm not very fond off – I think it's for the girls, and his face looks depressed, somehow; I'm sure it's cold water because there's no foggy ambiance only a hot shower could have. So he slips out, and he's off to Hokage's office. He's got A-class; an important document was stolen in the archives and they think it's jounin from Stone, since the two villages are in some sort of cold war; y'know, spying and all."

"What kind of document?"

"Who cares? So, the man was dismissed. Stopped by the academy to submit his last report which was due weeks ago; he left, of course not before seeing the girl, seeing her teaching the children as he passed by a corridor. It becomes intense, he sweats, gulping for some air and I think he even shrugged himself off. And there's something in his eyes, I can see, like an excitement, something like that. And then the girl notices her, and he doesn't know what to do. The class was over anyway so she walks towards him, asks her where he'd headed, he stutters, answers he's on a mission. She wishes him luck, the man stutters and then he's off. Back to the woods, at the borders of Konoha. Wait, have I told you the jounin, although obiously a pervert, is kinda serious about missions?"

"No."

"Well he is, and as he was about to finally cross over another village a kunai flew straight at him. He dodges of course. An unknown shinobi walks, but you can tell it was a kunoichi because the... uh, lumps... the lumps were pretty obvious. She wears the same shinobi pants, greenish black this time, and she got some bandages for top, bandages with some markings; they extend up to her shoulders and arms, then to her stomach, and she wears a meshed shirt, the usual, but that villain's a kick-ass. She got bluish-black hair, tied up like rice ball, but she had layers of hair at the sides of her face and let them fall down to her shoulders."

"And her face?"

Sadly my friend, she wore a mask, only those beautiful blue eyes can be seen. The said document she was holding it, and the jounin starts running. The fight commences. The kunoichi starts with some seal and creates a doton, the man dodges and takes out his kunai, they're pretty sluggish, like waiting for each others' strikes. It's crappy to see. Anyway, cut the story short, Konoha jounin wins of course, pinning the girl in some tree only with bare hands, and his knee was pressing her thighs... ugh... and searches her clothes for the document and he finds it. And but curiosity killed him, so he tried taking off the mask, and it turns out that it's bunshin and the document turned into some smithereens of dust. Then you get to see the girl running off, caressing her left shoulder, because a kunai got it wounded during the fight. She takes the mask off, it's the girl from before."

"Hmm... Toad-man actually never thought of that before."

"They say it's based on some real thing."

"In Konoha?"

"I'm not pretty sure."

"..."

"..."

"They're here... tell me the rest when they're gone..."

"..."

"..."

"Kurenai! Asuma!"

"Anko-san. Where are the others? It's not yet started?"

"We're early. Hokage's on her way. The others, too."

"Hey Asuma, watched the Icha Icha?"

"..."

"Eh? That's a no then. Quite good y'know."

"You should ask Kakashi, Ebisu-san."

"Where is he anyway?"

"On a mission I think. Hyuuga girl told me when I passed her by on the academy earlier."

"Anko, you mean Hinata?"

"Hinata? Uh, yeah, she got her hair long I didn't notice."

"How'd she know anyway?"

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_tbc._


	2. One

_reviews/flames appreciated. standard disclaimers apply. techniques based on the anime. first paragraph derived from 'of buzzing & chirping'. thanks for Santeira for appreciating the prologue._

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Hyuuga Hinata has faultless airs with regards to her life, cognizant of the reality, being the head of her kin – in which tragedy loiters in their selves – and at the same time a supposedly mediocre life. She strives then to eventually dissolve alter the meaning of strength and weakness, or so she says to herself. It would only be a matter of some hours until tragedy once again take its footstep by her life's doors; it is hypothetical on her part as she muses, trying to beckon the emotional attachments. And all these; they had the duty to enlighten her... the hunger for immensity – even those trivialities that pull together the feeling called recognition.

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**Psychedelic Soul**

"_**Sentimental Analgesia"

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**_

The articulation is intelligible, but there was a sentiment that habituated the entirety of Hyuuga Hinata's mental processes like some conscience – although devil-may-care – and dictates upon her the free spirit of determination; this phenomenon, the "scrutiny of the mightier", is as recurrent as the sunbeams it became almost innate on her part to retort in such a way where she bows her head down, and proceeds doing the housechores instead. And this is the role of the heiress tonight: to sweep the training grounds of the mansion before any member, especially her father, could see her, because she doesn't want them see her training; for one thing, sweeping exercises the upper muscles of the body, and that way she can position her arms in good locations and accurately mold chakra. Down by the dregs and sediment that became the core of the Hyuuga's establishment as a formidable force of Konoha, down by the grounds lit only by the platinum moon and slightly frozen by the winds, Hinata's music was the sounds of the brustles – like the rough sways of the leaves – and there was content, one way or the other. No one's to undermine her, her skills and her ego, her true self – no one'll stab her with profound scrutiny. This, she says, is intelligible.

And so she sweeps. Now as far as her mind and body are concerned; on the other hand, her thoughts are far-away strangers that seem to bury her beneath their radiance that she hesitates to even own them. Never was tragedy a visitor to her world of pure judicious conduct; pure judicious adulteration, pure extrapolation of emotions from the everydayness of the world, her experiences. But it will be, tomorrow – she is, after all, an unintelligible articulation like Shino – easy to be judged but barely looked at. The crows started chanting and she stops clearing the training grounds, eyes focused and byakugan activated, giving her an almost absolute skill to see certain things in temporality and space. The winds are gentle, caressing her, and the moonbeams make her skin glisten as she takes her pink sweater off. Jewels of sweat are visible to her forehead. And she starts craning her arm as her foot copes up with the movement, her body gyrating and she starts molding her energy, directing it towards the tip of her fingers. Her footgear whispers with the dusts as she steps forward, and her arms become weightless. The locks of her hair hesitantly jazz with the amiable breeze and she could now see a bug by the old trees, and she smiles at the realization. She lengthens her sight – and with more to see, the people and all, with more to be sentimental about – she halts, heaving a sigh, and just savoring the pleasure behind it all.

* * *

"She got C-class. Stolen scroll on the historical archives, supposed to belong from Nidaime. Shinobi guards injured by some special doton. Gathered inferences and deduced. Agent to journey to the Stone and retrieve it, along with some information regarding its cold war against Konoha. Thief probably chuunin. Has fifteen hours, wait...that'd be, uh, seven hours to prepare. Well?" 

"Eh?"

"Rest of team eight on other solo missions,"

"And Kurenai?"

"On a mission. A-class I think. Want me to read them?"

"Thanks Iruka, no. I've heard almost all of the others' missions."

"...hey, aren't you gonna ask about your own cell?"

"Uh, they don't need me anymore anyway. Naruto's with Jiraiya-sama and Sakura's under the Hokage now,"

"That isn't so bad now, ne? You taught them shinobihood, I think that's most important."

"Thanks Iruka, gotta go. Hokage-sama's overworking people nowadays."

* * *

Entailing anti-theses ensue within the mind of the Hyuuga; she's a girl for everyone and but no one – not because from unnoticed recoils of a kunoichi lacking enough prowess for some proof of stregth but because she is discrete (and would rather be), and isolated from the trends of her generation she endeavors, as far as she remembers, to create her own genesis, to struggle against weakness. She has a sentimental analgesic against the analytic world, her supposed innocence, the psychical unkowing of human nature and its grievous condition. And this presupposition has been so effective, so she authentically thinks, a bad faith of her superficial self. She's prude; that's her objectification. 

She jumps, high enough and lands on a stout branch, and the forest is pathetic-fallacy (the smiling woods) to her strength. Kilometers away, houses as big as he thumb lay themselves – the first town of the Stone – and she purses her lips at some sudden enthusiasm that shot her and settles on what to do next. The wind picks up and she leaps to another tree, then another, and she races against the falling leaves, following her with every spring. She dances with nature, graceful but precise. But her movement soon gets disrupted. Her head swivels, taking out a kunai. The veins in her face are perceivable, her craft of interpreting the meaning of being situated in certain time and space, endowed with a predetermined scenarion so she can do something about it, with others having roles to play and she having a principal one.

And exactly in this place – leaves are falling, the winds have changed its ambience; she stretches her sight, gripping her kunai. Wind against metal and a kunai flies directly towards her, avoiding it as the blade stabs the antiquated tree. Her body twirls in the air and dodges another one, and emitting her chakra another one fails to touch her. Her eyebrow raises. Hinata stares but found herself confused.

The shinobi lifts his face up to meet hers and a gray mask covers his bandaged head; his right hand holds a scroll and Hinata wonders. He had no forehead protector, or any indication he hails from Stone; but she's already by the borders of the village and infers he's some kind of sentinel. A border guard with a scroll? But she concurred with silence and prepares to launch herself at the shinobi; the latter steps backward, understanding the context of situation. He reaches up for shurikens, making them glide against the air and he leaps backward, opening the scroll; Hinata falters, and boulders are swarming her like Shino's bugs.

This is only the second time around that she will use it in combat; she still has to measure the amount of chakra needed to execute her technique. In this train of thought she already evaded several boulders, and seeing the shinobi preparing another seal her left foot creates an audible friction with the dry earth, her arms dancing in the air, her palms with raw energy. _Shugo Hakke Rokujuuyonshou. _Lines of chakra are rhythmic, sclaing the boulders like million knives, turning them into smithereens, giving her absolute defense against the rocks that dare injure her with their force.

The shinobi gulps. He takes out his kunai instead. The infrangible defense also has its end, and this is a weakness, giving the user susceptible to attack. The dust settles. Hinara reaches for her kunai but the ninja has already slashed through her and reveals her meshed shirt, and but the mask cracked, and it falls down the other's face. He swallows hastily. It was a bunshin.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi pauses. His body moves in a spiral at the sound of cracking twigs and hunches some pursuers. He creates more kage bunshins, and they ran in all directions. He gasps, closing his right eye, and jumps to another tree, proceeding northwest. He can hear the rhythm the river's making and his pace quickens; a shinobi jumps and with overwhelming speed the scarecrow was already behind him, and both landed on a tree. A fumashuriken flies up above, soaring towards them, and another shinobi appears, and Kakashi could only muster a kick and he gets hit. The smoke indicates it was a kage bunshin, and several Kakashi's swarm the two ninjas, each with their own kunai. Several moments after and there was only one white-haired scarecrow, holding a bloodied kunai, with both of his enemies welcoming death through their own weapons. He looks up the sky. He creates more copies of himself, and he vanishes in smokes.

* * *

At the other end of the border, Hyuuga Hinata pragmatically passed muster the idea of running off and ignoring the figure that's been waiting for her next offense; forming substanceless bunshins, she proceeds northeast, the others in all other locations. The grasses flatten with every step, and her practical rationality, her fuel for the adventures of the day, is quickly drying up, and the only thought lingering on her sentimental mind is that the enemy will soon discover her. She jumps, seizing the barks tight, twisting her body up in the air and runs again en route to the unfathomable pavements engrossed by the almost dry foliage; her right foot penetrates the filth with a slight revolution of her body and the fumashuriken approaches with great speed. Gathering enough energy, she emits them – as if forcefully, abruptly – and the large shuriken changes its direction. The shinobi springs from the overweight stems, "Bark up the wrong tree," she hears. Hinata puckers her lips. 

"But I... I..." he mutters in an inaudible voice, but the all-seeing lass has enough vision to read those hidden lips that seem to be moving like pebbles in the waters, battling each other, forming the cerulean sky now, and the scorching heat fades. The zephyr is colder, she thinks, and the waves of ocean pummeling against the masses of firm minerals soothe her ears. The stars are starting to appear, swarming around the moon and they shine in the pattern of her heartbeat, sparkling at the threads of dark hues that line the sky. She sighs, and at the distance, fog comes into the picturesque view, signaling the presence of issue of hot waters underground. The shinobi comes closer, and Hinata's unawareness and enthrallment to the genjutsu violently stops as strokes of his kunai wounds the genin by the shoulders; and but with sufficed range, with enough force and with the quality of the psyche to confront her idiocy, her right arm hurls in the air, stretching her palm – and striking the left side of the adversary.

"Jyuken!"

* * *

The moon has already been exhibiting its alienation up in the azure sky when Kakashi decides to camp, with only provisions in hand and with no comfortable mattress to lay his apparently exhausted body, his physicality which appears to position itself in metaphysic realms, and the sole compensation is its sensual gratification. He sighs. 

He sits in the largest stem at the woods, lying his back at the sturdy trunk; he removes his vest in the most careful movement of his fngers and with kunai cuts his left sleeve with precision. He frowns at the stupidity that lurked in his psychedelic soul. Beside him is the scroll that will for more unethical ends, a scroll that gives profound sense in all the nonsensical state of affairs that will inexorably have their own genesis, their own generation of reality; he takes out a canister, pouring its content by his left shoulder, caressing it, hoping that the coils of chakra will eventually unclog from another kind of vigor that whelmed its natural flow.

In this stillness, Hatake Kakashi smiles; the smile of the true ass in the realm of the senses shows itself to no one but himself, to no one but the gloomy shrubs that hid him from Stone's shinobis, because he happened to assassinate the jounin that will make liaison with the Thunder to beckon the case of the Hyuugas. And this authentic grin, the honest grin of pure adulteration, pure abstraction of impurity from the everydayness of the world, his experiences – but its effectivity can only be intelligible when it's disguised, a bad faith of superficiality, because he has his own emotional analgesia, his impurity, that makes everything candy-coated even in the bitterness of his life.

He shifts, trying not to feel the pain, and instead directs his consciousness at those exotic lines, those beautifully lethal lines that appear in the heat of any battle. In these thoughts the breeze gets colder, substituting standard time and he now knows too well it's midnight. A rush of blood to the head and his impurity, the psychical unknowing of innocence – he whispers in a voice understood only when one's tainted, and the mask and bandages fall from his lap, and he breathes more in ease this time around.

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_tbc._


	3. Two

_Thanks for appreciating this. Reviews/flames still welcome. Standard disclaimers apply. for dialogue and for thought, and some more allusions. Enjoy._

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**Psychedelic Soul**

**_"Abstractions"

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_**

"Isn't that supposed to be my line Kurenai?"

"..."

"Whatever. Kakashi must've told her for formality's sake. Besides, we all tell our missions anyway."

"Spot on, Asuma..."

"..."

"Hey, sign says no smoking,"

"And?"

"You can puff it all out in Sound if y'want,"

"Sign says no eating too, Anko."

"..."

"Why are they taking long?"

"We're ten minutes early, that's why,"

"Who d'ya think's gonna be next to go?"

"I'd say Ino."

"That's bias, Asuma,"

"What? Since Neji and Shino became chuunin she's the most eligible this time, and I'm not saying this because she's in my cell,"

"But Sakura's under the tutelage of the Hokage now... she must be stronger now, ne?"

"I saw her revive a dead antelope in seconds,"

"Anko, would she be able to make both offense and defense in the arena by reviving dead animals?"

"..."

"But she can heal herself. She knows poison, antidotes; she might have learned how to manipulate the body already."

"Good point, Ebisu-san. And she knows more genjutsu."

"What about Hinata? What's your say, Kurenai?"

"...well, she improved. Immensely. She utilizes techniques other than the usual Hyuuga ones... though, uh, with respect to medic knowledge, I have to give it to Sakura,"

"Medic knowledge?"

"Figures. Her bloodline and irou ninjutsus. Compatible."

"But... but, medic knowledge? Eew..."

"..."

"Why that eew sound, Anko? Anything wrong with medic-nins?"

"...!"

"..."

"!"

"Maybe she needs a little demonstration Tsunade-sama,"

"No, no I wasn't saying eew... I was, uh, I was saying whew!... whew because... because uh, because at last someone wants to be a medic-nin other than Sakura! Yeah, that's right. An expression of relief and excitement, Tsunade-sama,"

"Any medic-nin can paralyze your dainty fingers in seconds so you can forget about your kinjutsus... gather all special jounins, they're obviously late."

"We're three minutes early, Hokage-sama."

"..."

"I'll gather available jounins, Tsunade-sama."

"You do that Shizune."

_'A little boy who hailed from a good clan, a little boy who has great potentials, an almost genius boy who is invincible against ultralow-class techniques. A boy who can throw shurikens at the highest speed, a boy who can do henge at the age of five, a boy who graduated at the academy at the age of five and ten, a genin who found most of the missions boring and utterly degrading for a ninja, a genin who spent most of his time practicing genjutsus, a genin who despised company but didn't show it to others and tried enjoying the merriment instead. A genin who loved his parents, a genin who was proud of his parents because his parents were both jounins, because his parents were invincible. A genin who tried emulating his parents, a genin who struggled to gain strength, a genin who can now calculate and hypothesize taijutsu moves. A genin who won the eliminations of the chuunin exam, a genin who battled someone from the Sand, a genin who won against the Sand by utilizing a genjutsu before proceeding with an accurate taijutsu. A somewhat pervert genin who loves imagining things inside his head, a genin who loved seeing girls and dating them and..._'

"Ebisu, were you listening at all?"

"Wha-what?"

"You seem to be drifting. You got suggestions?"

"Sugestions?"

"...suggestions about the first eliminations. Or you want to doze off now?"

"No, Hokage-sama, no... I... I wanna hear what the others have to say,"

"So far, Ebisu-san, two options have been proposed. First is to make the participants take the Forest of Death first before written exams, the second is to make the genins directly take the eliminations match."

"Uh, well... uh, written exams should be scrapped, because, uh, because genins might know the procedures already and,"

"But they wont know it because they get to decline the test before they discover them,"

"You're right Ibiki-san, but the ones who passed will know them, they get to tell them too. If they lose and re-take it then they know what to do by then,"

"..."

"Hmm... that's more plausible I think,"

"Thank you, Hokage-sama."

"And the Forest of Death will turn out to be a cliché too."

"It seems so, Tsunade-sama."

"As I was saying earlier, Tsunade-sama, making them fight each other off will be the best option to take. It'll only last for a week and that will give us more time about reforms in Konoha."

"But what about the things they learned in the academy, Aoba? In their cell? Aren't we supposed to instill in them that?"

"Kurenai... the matches don't imply that,"

"And how so? They'll have to think nothing but themselves when they're actually there in the fight. We make chuunins because they have greatly maintained the values instilled on them."

"Why don't we make other proposals,"

"The council would like to make one, Tsunade."

"Go ahead."

"Before they take individual matches, they've got to put everything in theory. A written exam about hypothetical situations, hypothetical answers. Then they get to actualize them in the Forest of Death. Konoha cannot afford to build new battledomes, we see that,"

"But that's just like the written exams before,"

"It has difference. The one we presented will make genins falter and think about moving on to the next stage."

"Like taking both the written exam and Forest of Death at the same time."

"It seems so, Homura, but it will make no difference with the exams we did before because the participants tend to do things other than what they said they will do during interviews. They change resolves depending on the context of their situation... there's difference between their theoretical and practical rationality."

'_A genin who won the chuunin exams at the age of six and seventeen, a chuunin who became an instructor in the academy, a chuunin who used to check papers in the middle of the night, a chuunin who mostly did average missions, a chuunin who did several missions which almost killed him. A chuunin who harnessed his skills, a chuunin who still lovs dating girls and seeing girls in their velvety ways, a chuunin who easily gets infatuated, a chuunin who wouldn't do a thing to please those whom he truly likes, a chuunin who would rather stare at the distance and savor his solitude. A chuunin who trained like hell, a chuunin who could execute advanced genjutsus, a chuunin who quickly became jounin because of his strength, a depressed chuunin because his parents died, a chuunin who celebrated with no one in becoming jounin, a chuunin who almost lost his enthusiasm for shinobihood, a jounin who found himself sad even in the company of others, even in merriment. A jounin who combats true alienation, a jounin who still don't know what to do in life, a jounin who likes to think he isn't thinking, a jounin who effectively uses his pervert mind to disguise boredom, a jounin who teaches genins how to be good ninjas, a jounin with a weak life, a jounin who assasinated a fellow jounin of other village to save the girl whom he truly likes, an ass kind of jounin who is a piece of shit..._'

"Ebisu, you're abstaining?"

"What? Abstaining?"

"..."

"He's still moved by that film he can't take it off of his mind,"

"Shut up Anko."

"Film? What film?"

"The– "

"She means that flimsy idea she proposed."

"But I didn't propose anything."

"You're counted as abstain. Third option chosen by the majority."

"The forest-of-death-written-exams?"

"It was the first option, Ebisu-san,"

"Mark it, Raidou. Next agenda we have are designations. Since we're employing a mission-style kind of exam before the eliminations match, we won't be able to foresee if a C-rank will turn S, it'd be best if jounins will supervise, like the way we used to llast time. I suggest that jounins supervise their own cells, while others get designations in random. Any comments?"

'_A little girl from a respected clan, a girl who possesses a kekkei genkai, a little girl who is supposed to lead the clan in the future, a little girl of shyness, a coy girl who hides in her father's back when introduced other townspeople. A little girl who can throw shurikens with faltering speed, a little girl who needs a servant every now and then because her body cannot keep up with training, a little girl who needs company because she easily gets sick, a little girl who cannot keep her feet's balance when she tries performing basic techniques. A girl who entered the academy at the age of nine, or ten, an intelligent little girl who knows almost all the answers to exams, a bright little girl who can perfect her quizzes at taijutsu and basic ninjutsu courses, a shy little girl who is afraid of mockery and heightens her determination by looking for others who have the same situation as her. A little girl who quickly learned the basics of seal knowledge, basic ninjutsu and genjutsu, a little girl who can perform henge at the age of eleven, a little girl who can overwhelm others' chakra with her own, a little girl who still finds it hard to breathe during harsh trainings, a girl who is afraid to spar with others because she might hurt people, a girl who finds it awkward training in front of people, because she is embarrassed when insulted because her body cannot cope up with the training. A girl who was despised by her family members, a girl who was left alone by her family, a jounin and her teammates who take care of her during her lonesome times, a girl who wants to prove herself to the world, a girl who can now strike the enemy with a single blow full of chakra, a girl who can now execute advanced ninjutsu and taijutsu. A girl who relates to the failures and mishaps of her teammates, a girl who relates herself to the problems of her teacher, a girl who begins to realize the sadness of the world, a girl who realizes the woes of people around her, a girl who can now execute lethal strikes to the enemy, a girl who can now balance her movements when executing a technique. A girl who graduates at the academy at the age of twelve, a girl who now throw kunais at great speed, a girl who lost herself during times of battle, a girl who understands the pains of loss, the pains of defeat, the pains of the world..._'

"Hey Ebisu,"

"Huh?"

"Genma's acting a little strange today, ne?"

"What?"

"Genma. He's totally silent. What's up with him?"

"He probably didn't get sleep,"

"Sleep? He didn't have missions since last two days."

"I dunno. Why, you dig him?"

"When I see him fight, that's when I'll tell you. Is he good?"

"I... yeah, stronger than Kurenai."

"Duh... Kurenai's new, that's why,"

"Stronger than you then."

"Heh. I like that."

"I bet you do."

"Ebisu, Anko; you've been whispering to each other. Perhaps you want to contribute something to the discussion?"

"I don't have anything to say about it, Tsunade-sama,"

"Me too."

"That's because you both aren't listening."

"Yes we are, Tsuinade-same, just that... I... I concur with Iwashi, we take security a priority,"

"That isn't the discussion,"

"Can I excuse myself for a moment? I really need to take this."

"..."

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama,"

"..."

"..."

"..."

'_A girl who begain training more than ever, a girl who hones her skills with waters and earth at her disposal, a girl who can make senbon needles by utilizing the water and molded chakra, a girl who can utilize a technique to give her both offense and defense, a girl who can emit chakra as her primary defense, a girl who trains more than her teammates do, a girl who prefers to be tortured when sparring her teammates and learn more out of it, a girl who wants to be stronger, a lass who kept her hair longer because she doesn't want to look like a kid anymore, a lass of discrete mind, a lass of bolder nature when alone but still shy when in the crowd, a lass of stronger force, a lass who isn't afraid to lose but still afraid of herself as the future head of her clan, a lass who isn't afraid to show herself to no one but anyone else, a lass who thrives in her own resolves, a lass capable of seeing the most distant objects, a lass who likes to keep to herself that flawless body of hers by wearing that goofy sweaters, a lass of deeper waters..._'

"Hey,"

"...you scared me! What're you doing here anyway?"

"The meeting's boring me. Need some air. Why so preoccupied all of a sudden?"

"Preoccupied? Me? Not me, Anko."

"Anyway... remember the Icha Icha you're telling me about? What happened next?"

"Why? You like it?"

"I just want to see how it'll end,"

"Liar."

"I can ask Jiraiya himself y'know,"

"Yeah, like he'll tell you."

"Well... are you gonna continue or not?"

"Hmm... where are we? Uh, oh yeah, so the guy goes to Stone thinking the enemy retreated and decides to wait until night comes up to continue his espionage and mission. He had to make himself look like he's from other village so people wouldn't suspect of anything, by genjutsu of course... and, and he observes. He observes the people, the shinobis he was seeing, so he would know their behavior and act like one, to avoid suspicion. Meanwhile, the girl, the one who attacked the jounin, she was holding the document and reading it, I think it was about some sort of rituals people from other villages do, and they're completely confidential because those rituals have forbidden techniques, they kill people, including Konoha. I found this interesting, because I do think it's for real and it's rather intriguing for the toad-man to insert this on his thing. Anyway, she flips the page, and reads something about sexual rituals people used to do when villages weren't founded yet. She gives a frown, then a widened eye, she covers her mouth next."

"What were those rituals?"

"I dunno, but from the looks of it, they sure look nasty,"

"And hot!"

"The document says about shinobis being, uh, mostly messengers to others that primitive time, and that ninjas are slaves to their master's will."

"Even now, I think."

"But because they act as soldiers of their tribe, they are given a day, kinda like festival, full of rituals, though for ninjas only. This is also the time when shinobis and kunoichis marry, the time where parents arrange marriage to fellow ninjas, the time where they get control... except people absent in the ritual, the time where they get to gratify themselves... and I really mean gratification... in all its sense. The festival is marked by a full moon with only a star – the brightest one during ordinary days – with unpredictable winds, and with overflowing weeping cheery even though they're not in season... the ritual is started with slow rhythms of gongs, and a very large torch at the center of the place where they'd get to burn those shidarezakuras, the mark of taking subordination off of the shinobis, and they get to pick from the people who they want to be with... the ritual starts by people bathing the ninjas, and they will give them massage and all that, and the ritual ends with folk dances to the tune of the gongs and resounding of bamboo against water... darn that toad-man, really."

"I think I know where the ritual leads into,"

"Yeah, I know."

"Hmm..."

"Eh?"

"Did the document... did it restrict preferences?"

* * *

_tbc._


	4. Three

_Standard disclaimers apply. Reviews/flames welcome. Sorry for the late update; just enjoy._

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata finds herself, again, soon as the day cracks like the dryness of the leaves – reeling her head – confusing the potentially adulterated mind as her eyes quickly open, and the chirps of birds perched at the rooftop welcome her; the coolness of the wind marks her realization she is in some shrine, with no gods, and sunbeams pass through the panes. There's a gap between reality and their respective paradigms, she muses, for the farthest distance her memory can reach was the certain temporality of her defeat against the shinobi who donned an odd gear, and with reflexes so familiar it was hard to decipher everything. She touches her shoulder, feeling the bandages that covered the wounds against any more injury – even the slightest one at that; her sweater served as blanket, and her medic pack was open. She stands up, and but every step was cautious, with whispering thumps and tries to camouflage herself in silence as she approaches the doors that served as monstrous barricades against the elements of nature, as well as elements of human endeavors toward some destructive ends. She then stares outside, unknowing of what to do and ignorant of the physical causalities of this certain phenomenon; and in the stillness of her reeling mind, in the ode of her heartbeat, she listens – and stretching out her fingers – her byakugan activates. Larks and sparrows and waxwings, two flying up the sky, four perching at the rooftop – some insects by the shrubs, her sweater, her medical kit, farther – steaming water, rooftops, two men walking, a bucket of fish, smooth boulders, antiquated trees, an old woman and three more people walking towards somewhere.

"Wha–"

She halts. Her view entailed more perplexed thoughts but the gist of the story of her defeat was clear, and her enthusiasm revives; gathering her things she leaves the shrine, proceeding to the nearest town of Stone, ignorant of the physical causes of this certain phenomenon but now aware, she's now aware of the seventh bird welcoming her presence. That hiding _scarecrow_.

* * *

**Psychedelic Soul **

**_From Foxes to Scarecrows_**

* * *

Kage bunshin Hatake Kakashi observes as the adversaries seek _its_ existence, its fake existence that seems to show an emotion almost perceivable at the eyes of any human being; the presupposition of its humanness is second to none but from the way it stares, with eyebrow raised, there is a glint in its unmasked eye that purported a certain degree of what its originator can do, of what reality can do; the furtherance of such line between reality and representation of reality is the bunshin's ability to let _thought_ meander within its supposed mind: to obey, to sacrifice itself to accomplish an end, to act on some necessitated thing in order to justify its existence. This resolve is quite impeccable on its part now as it springs from the roots that became trunks of the old tree; it manages to seize another shinobi by its thighs, shifting them in counter-clockwise direction as the other snaps, walking randomly with a broken neck as the white-haired scarecrow lets go, gyrating its body in the air as it lands on the earth. Stone chuunins prepare next, throwing kunais and shooting stars as more copies of the copy-nin himself emerge from the other trees – and pandemonium visits them merrily, aware of the violence that will ensue, aware of the bodies that will be nourishment for this doomed forest. 

The earth shakes and the grasses lose their hold of the soil as the chuunin molds water with filth, and emitting his raw energy forms a seal; Kakashi dodges the other kunais with precise projection but two vanish in smokes. Kakashi runs, following the chunins, throwing at them bunshin kunais; the river is the Stone shinobi's apprentice as it mingles with it the chakra-filled mud and creates a doton attack, the mud like oceanic waves as more Kakashis disappear, clearing the woods of any more obstacles that will hinder them to survival, so they can declare to the world the assassination of a fellow jounin-leader, to proclaim to the world the brutish Konohagakure, to finally make wars against the village of leaves official. At successive strikes kage bunshin Kakashis release smoke to mark their failures as more splashes of mud overwhelm them, with shrubs and flowers following their so-called deaths, the birds flying up to dodge the waters, the trees enduring the force and trying to resist the temptation of joining the sate of nearby plants.

The technique stops. The ninjas frown at the acknowledgement of their mediocrity, with no sign at all to show their victory against the jounin; the grounds are dark waters, oblique and uncomfortable against their gears, and there was slight destruction to the health and beauty of the woods, and the river has filth as its comrade while they flow towards the waterfall. Hardly breathing and they began their strides; longing for home, longing for security.

"Let us take that course. There's a quick route there,"

"That waterfall? That's dangerous,"

"We can take west then northeast, there's a medic camp there,"

"That... that jounin is legendary... we can't easily beat him..."

"That's why we change routes. Tsuchikage needs to be informed of this."

The most able Stone Country chuunin stops.

"Wait..."

"Wha– what?"

"Someone's coming..."

"He's coming!"

They take out their kunais, able but frightened – it's the mark of vulnerability.

* * *

The supposed harsh environment, with all the stories of geographical nuisance – rocks that obstruct the growth of plants, boulders as prevalent elements of existence of the village, winds that equate Sunagakure's sandstorms, and worthless minerals surrounding the whole of Iwagakure – the supposedly unfair condition of the Stone was certainly an unwarranted assumption, at least to the byakugan lass' perception; the breeze is almost cool, most probably because of the lush undergrowth that surrounded the town whereof fuchsia, creambush and buckthorn dominate and the white petals of cherry (which ironically cannot be found in Leaf) are creating trails for her to follow. And she chases them in silence, walking together with merchants who sell Iwagakure figurines purely made of fine minerals; she makes a genjutsu out of her forehead protector, still with the mindset that amidst the beauty in all these, her mission was the causality of this certain experience. At her right was a traditional town-tower, though not as tall, with limestone barricades hindering any damage and several of Stone Country's marks can be seen – at her left was the old woman, sighing as if from exhaustion, and she stares at the young kunoichi; Hinata smiles, affirming her existence, and other smiles, too. She walks yet again, following the route the falling weeping cherry leaves were making, and she listens even more at the sounds of children playing shinobi, the unmistakable game of scrutinizing who is mightier, and she sighs; not because of any other intuitive matters that'd make her lines of absolute sight visible, but from the angst that has been her ghost for the past fifteen years.

Several other men walks, passing her pensive self by.

The unnerving fact that her abilities aren't nearing their perfection makes its revenge on her as she nods her head down and relate only to herself the profound morality that took her family, the code of tradition that took Uzumaki Naruto away from her; the addiction to the furtherance of strength has made Hinata draw a line between herself and other beings who have overflowing pride to themselves and to entities that interlock their subsistence, entities that make up for their humanity. This line of isolation proved to be effective towards weakness, and in years the actualization of her potentials was empty space – a gap of utter mediocrity – and she affirms that regret is always not at the onset of it all. Children are shouting jutsus. She takes a step.

The key to the resuscitation of herself was _anxiety,_ the recognition of the idea that something within the corollaries of her actions is a barricade to the authentication of the meaning of being a true Hyuuga heiress, a true kunoichi who embraces the idea of heightening one's abilities, a true being who struggles against typecasting; and she trained hard, she refuses to execute stereotypical kekkei genkai techniques, she endeavors to learn.

"Miss!"

She looks up in astonishment.

"Pretty thoughtful today, ne?"

Uh, uhm... Can I–"

"What d'ya say about these fine Iwagakure masks? We crafted 'em through our bare hands!"

"Wha... How much–"

"Your eyes are quite _different_..."

"I'm... I'm from... I hail from Mist,"

"Mist y'say? Hmm... you're a shinobi?"

"Uh, yes sir,"

"Anyway, so how 'bout it? These'd be great gifts when you get back home. Wait... are you trying out our springs?"

"Springs? You have..." she smiles, "you have springs here, mister?"

The bald man grinned. "We sure do miss! And people in Mist usually check out our springs... they say to try something other than theirs,"

"I... I haven't been here before,"

"Well what d'ya know, I have a tourist here! Say, try the spring out there," the certain merchant says, pointing to northeast. Several houses are glued to each other and more shidarezakuras are laying themselves beside each house, ands steam is visible, enticing her.

"Uh, mister,"

The presence of the masks was hurling her abstracted thoughts as she stares at them, those several instruments of disguise, those glistening tools of espionage; and they sparkle even more as sunlight approaches them like _truth_, the happenstance of one's journey to discover everything else that demand going back to the true nature of the essence of what things really are. She stretches her arm, reaching for those masks but never touching them. At certain gyration of her cognitive self and she halts.

"They're grains of various agates, made into thin layers and absolutely hand-made young lady,"

"Where... where do you make these mister?"

"Can't tell you that, young lady! Buy one! It'll help a good 'ole merchant's income..."

Her fingers graze at a particular stone-carved face, whitish and radiant against sunlight and but traces of yellow and green are quite apparent to her sight. It was smooth despite the unusual grains that faintly glow, and she smiles at the bald man. "How much is this mister?"

She swivels her head suddenly, staring at the gray-hued bathhouse and felt the sunbeams getting warmer; the birds are chirping and the old man was _preparing_ to leave; the children are still playing and the afterthought of the reminiscence of her desolate life was subsiding like the wounds on her shoulders. Her eyebrow raises from an unknown shot of eagerness. The winds seem to call her, her addiction to the aesthetics of nature; and her body was dictating upon her psychological images of a sound mind, body and soul. In this town that gives picturesque view of the beauty of existence, with thousands of more realizations – schmaltzy but merry – she is more than an audience to the dullness and customariness this place seem to emanate; and down by this road, or somewhere, she can take time to look at the meaning of being situated in a certain time and space, so when her favorite stubborn fox return from training and ultimately talks to her... and awkwardness will be gone. She head to the spring. She quite knew – she quite knew and thought that never in her life could and would someone give her that picturesque emotionality.

* * *

They're violent beauties of expediency. 

The crudity of it all was just beginning to manifest, that in-itself essentiality of the savage mind and predatory flexes of their bodies as the nin-dogs come into the chuunins' sight via kuchiyose tsuiga no jutsu, and the soil and dirt separate in discordant sharpness, revealing them, and mouths open to make apparent those bodily-attached wedges, and in sync with the shinobis' apprehensive heartbeats those minute entities of pain puncture through their ankles and everybody else snaps; two of them found themselves barely escaping those unmistakable summons of the white-haired scarecrow as they leap from the ground, trying hard to avoid even a scrape from the dogs' lunges, landing on the trees that survived the landslide. In easy angles kunais launch themselves downward, and a ninja starts to form a seal; the bloodhounds shift themselves out of the murky grounds, maneuvering their postures, springing from the ground and occluded their teeth, trapping the kunais with their fangs. It then becomes a human dogfight: two ostensibly different Stone chuunins with their own respective adversaries as they strike each other out in the tranquility of the air, a somersault of attacks, and biting through the arm that held an explosive tag a chuunin alights his face on the mud, lathering him of his own attack, right shoulder broken as the obese nin-dog pins him down, his claws starting to pierc through the other's back, and legs; flash seconds more and it fastens its mouth shut, and the sudden cracking sounds are accompanied by the concoction of blood and filth, and man loses his right arm.

Hardly evading a ninja's standard arsenal the nin-dog received a wound to its neck and the chuunin thwarts, pivoting himself and throws the kunai at the wolf-looking carnivore who seemed the make the shinobi interpret it was nourishing itself from his teammate's flesh; the dog dodges, now hyena-looking to manifest a certain sadism, the kunai ultimately stabbing the other ninja to death, eyes suddenly open, his throat clawed and red. The earth shakes and filth concentrates. One man's demise and the scarecrow's pets withhold their intention for killing as they evade spurts of mud, breaking the branches with sufficed vigor, creating craters in the trunks, even grounds – and but the summons are too clever for a C-class doton, now running, and randomly spinning in the air to land on the sturdy branch, others on boulders and they glare at the survivors who are soon-to-be _reikons_ joining their ancestors somewhere out of this physical world.

In the distance, Pakkun observes his comrades. '_Kakashi must be desperate to leave us like this_,' it muses. '_The things you do for passion._'

* * *

The orange-hued sky was marking the genesis of night time, and the town – it was growing noisier, at least to Hyuuga Hinata's earshot; the springs are calling her and she gets herself once again – donning the garments as he leaves the room. Every step reverberated in the wooden hallway that is actually old, but something in the place's antiquity made it look, for the Hyuuga heiress, _beautiful_. And she walks, albeit cautious, looking for someone. She heads north and passes two other customers by, and taking longer paces and old lady was waiting for her, holding the bamboo-woven basket everyone in the spring ought to have when bathing. The old lady smiles, and the lines on her face, as well as her gray locks, seem to fade to Hinata's absolute perception. And the byakugan lass then halts, reciprocating the old manager's smile with a nod; she takes the vat then. 

"You're good timing miss,"

Hinata listened even more at the sounds outside. "Uh... good timing?"

"Yes," the old lady says as she walks Hinata to the springs, "...it's our weeping cherry festival. Y'hear those noises? Everybody's busy, yes,"

"Yes, they seem to be,"

"We're the only town with such cherry, young lady, even Leaf doesn't have _our_ cherry."

"Uh... I see, but... how did you have such festivity?"

The old lady smiles. "Our town resides in the borders of Stone and Leaf, and y'know they got this cold war going on,"

"I'm from Mist–"

"And, the shidarezakura trees are the only ones we can call our own, y'know, we celebrate our ownership of this town. It symbolizes purity, but as they fall down during autumn, they seem to be tears, a crying sky... y'know miss, it's us, and we've been doing this for quite some time."

"That's... good to know," she whispers, wondering the feeling of doing something you _really_ can call your own. She then smiles. "Is it an annual event, grandmother?"

"Oh no, our festival is marked only when in night time only the moon and the polaris are visible in the sky. I dunno how it happens, and sometimes it happens every year, sometimes not,"

"Oh I see,"

"You should be by our central park, yes, we're going to burn some cherry and with music,"

"Burn?"

"They're more fragrant when they're burning." The old lady smiles yet again as she opens the wooden door. Steam was all over and it was an ambience for Hinata, lukewarm and but soothing, and looking through it all, she forgot what is it like to be a byakugan ninja. "Here's the spring, young lady,"

Outside, as the copy-nin makes his way towards the central park, as his shoulder tighten at the rush of pain, as his energy-coils disrupt; he looks through the town, piercing it as he looks for somebody for some sharingan shinobi. And he sighs as he sees the peculiar sky, and holding out himself he sips his tea, staring at the huge fireplace as more people gather around. Their faces seem empty as he looks for her, not only because he wants to. The place is aromatic, he then realizes.

* * *

She tries to perceive them like they were a _touch_ away from her – those moonbeams – and more ripples appear as her dainty fingers travel smoothly against the warm water; basking her body glorified she heaves a breath, savoring such a time of gratification and the night becomes more impeccable for her. She touches her bare shoulders, and her nape, thinking about not thinking. She can hear percussions playing in the distance, and looking up she sees the ashen smoke that testified to the burning of shidarezakuras, and they were redolent, even here in the springs. She thinks of Konoha, how it smelled power, how it tasted geniuses and jounins and byakugan. 

_And so the vicious circle begins_. The opposition between her and the rest of analysts of strength. She thinks of what she will inherit only because of possessing a kekkei genkai, and bowing her head down she becomes numb from the warmth of the waters. There's something in her that makes her fall from the _look_ of the others. Was it because she was thrown in such a condition where the aspects of one's existence are determined by a win-lose dichotomy? It was a false dilemma and she knows it; she has for herself infinite possibilities. She can do what she wants, she can project for many things in life and fundamentally ignore everything else, for they are hindrance. Her techniques, for instance, aren't confined to the traditions of her clan; and with certain herbs she can poison everybody. So to a large extent, she ought to possess peculiarity in order to exhibit herself as an essential individual towards Konohagakure's advantage; and her problem rests on the idea that she is not such an essential individual, and her peculiarity is weakness. The drawing line between strength and weakness in the world of shinobis is marked by how the dichotomy works; and it does for Hinata. In these thoughts – she is a contradiction.

The music gets louder, and this time her body gets colder.

It's an over-rationalization and she knows it. Uzumaki Naruto, however, taught her to ignore logical justifications and affirmed only himself as a ninja. He taught her how to go against being genius, how to become better by being reckless, and stubborn. In these, her smile starts to show, although shy at that, wondering of the things to say when they're alone in some place, in some time. The lass of absolute sight never would be someone who can partake in such scrutiny of might, and she can train infinitely and still be scrutinized by her inability to be mightier. She knew quite well the anomaly that nature has given her, and that she must deal with it. She must transcend. And she knew, never did anyone give her that kind of humanness, such emotionality – that stubborn fox! As the festival smokes get bigger in her sight, she remembers those bunshin narutos as they fight her cousin; how he smiles at her, how he's too naïve, how he eats his ramen. How he trains with his teammates, how he argues with his _teacher_... who happens to be here in this town, too.

Her eyes twitch at the sudden gush, oceanic to her body as she descends underneath the waters. There was a growing curiosity out of her, on the basis of her innocence against naiveté. Yes, she is naïve, on a social basis; she is, however, adulterated like everybody else in the world. Everybody's got to have somebody for someone. But why _her_? Is she not assuming too much? Consigning herself to pensive silence she gets up, fixing herself and walks out the misty place. Some more minutes and she was donning her clothes, the usual gray pants and meshes shirt covered by her coat. Her hair is still wet but she didn't mind, thinking about her mission, metamorphosing herself again into a kunoichi. Opening the door she takes firmer treads, and sighing from an unknown shot of vigor she takes herself out of the homely place.

"Hinata."

The youngster cannot deny the familiarity. "Ka-Kakashi-sensei," she says suddenly, nodding, remembering the kind of tone Kakashi had when he spoke.

"You're here,"

"Uhm – yeah, a mission, Kakashi-sensei... wha-what're you doing here?"

"I was training outside Konoha when I got lost, and decided to come here because it's near."

"Oh."

The jounin sighs. "_No_. I've got my mission." There was a glint in his unmasked eye as he spoke, and Hinata stares.

"I see."

"I didn't know their festival,"

"It's their shidarezakura celebration,"

"Where're you headed?"

"Uhm – somewhere with ramen, Kakashi-sensei,"

He purses his lips. "Then we've got a date."

* * *

Both of them could not tell the difference between an actual human and a representation of the individual as their sight travels along those lines the grains of limestone are making, those masks that prevent the disclosure of the performers' faces as they glide against the winds, moving at successive moments, flexing their arms in slow motion, and the zephyr dances with the feathered threads as more people become witnesses to the crying sky. As more people pass their existence by, as the scent of burning shidarezakuras swells like the pallid clouds over summer – the Konoha shinobis walks almost ill at ease, minding their own perception, beginning to doubt the comfort they ought to expect from each other's company. In the distance, the music now plays with a voice, although with undecipherable lyrics; a parade of costumes was blocking the pavement, filling the space with a multitude of hues and more people come to see such representations of the town's reality, and culture. They enter a stall, warm from the conversations of others, and the odorous spices have influenced them to stay. 

"So how's team eight?"

Hinata attempts to look calm, and the immediate apprehension mystified her. "Uhm, Shino-kun is on a mission, and he's teaching in the academy, Kiba-kun's training for... the exams,"

Kakashi smiles. "I see."

"Uhm... how-how is... team seven, Kakashi-sensei?"

He takes his Icha-icha, "I dunno."

"Oh."

He sighs, closing the book. "I don't have team anymore, they got the legendary three as their new teachers,"

"Sannin?" Hinata stares at the orange bowl of steamy ramen, and but decides to sip her tea. Kakashi was motionless.

"How are you?"

Hinata was taken aback. She has presuppositions about civil discourse when it comes to certain relations, like from emotional detachment and familiarity. It was odd, she muses, seeing the unmasked eye of the legendary copy-nin, it was odd to be with him, and it was odd of her to think of all these. "Training hard, Kakashi-sensei," she says with a nod, and her tresses slowly graze against her coat.

"You're doing fine Hinata,"

"I hope so."

"Will you join the next exam?"

There was silence of heartbeats and thoughts as the girl of byakugan reaches yet again for her beverage. Kakashi stares, long enough to cool his ramen soup. As they dispatch themselves to such quietness, there arises, paradoxically, a communication between them; of course both of them knew the answer. They can engage in a dialectical conversation and they would be automatons in answering the most clichéd questions. More people are coming in, but less are going out of the restaurant. Was their table the only serene of them all?

"Kurenai-sensei has constant tasks to accomplish,"

"I know."

"Shizune-sensei is growing busy in the office,"

"Yes, she is."

"My father is not much help,"

"I'll train you then."

For the first time, there was an almost-eternal glimpse of each other's minds. Everything seemed to slowly move across the horizon of time, positively agonistic on their part as the liaison between them gets established on a seemingly innocent basis, overlooking assumptions and doubts and exposing them on new sets of presuppositions, on new kinds of imagination. On the other hand, as their company begins to maneuver towards comfort, as both of them realize the signification of each other's presence – people are making their way out of the place with immediate fear and instinctive drive to survive as an explosive tag dashes, firm like shuriken. A blast portends the restaurant razed to the ground, ruining the festival, and the people are winds jazzing like a storm as they run like madmen. The Thunder chuunins search for their adversaries, and jounin leader standing resilient and unmoved by the two Konoha shinobis looking stationary some meters away from him. He smiles, knowing too well the situation, projecting for a bloody shidarezakura festival. The copy-nin takes out his kunai, and Hinata can only raise an eyebrow, her tresses fluttering against the breeze. "He... he was the merchant I met Kakashi-sensei–the bald man, he was selling some–"

"You cannot deny your eyes young heiress," the bald jounin speaks, throwing the kunai towards them; the chuunins appear suddenly beside him.

Hinata activates the byakugan, nullifying the projectile. "Hinata I–I cannot form any seal," the other whispers.

"I... I know... I've disrupted your coils,"

Kakashi winces. "You... you knew?"

"I'm not genius Kakashi-sensei, but I'm–I'm... I'm not–"

Both shinobis leap from the ground as the chuunins run towards them, throwing their own shurikens and making people scamper out of the central park, a ghost town with the burning tower of weeping cherry as their light, as the only neutral entity in all these. "You've killed our Stone accomplices and we won't forgive that!"

"Hmm... so you're the group in the bingo book. Class C – missing-nins from your own country for not granting your request to re-open the case of the Hyuugas. And now you have accomplices. Too bad though they're dead," the copy-nin was calm as ever, playing with his arsenal by his fingers.

"The... a case... concerning us?"

"Enough talk! We're not the same as the Stone idiots! Prepare to die!"

Kakashi recoils. "They fail your group and you call them stupid. Good liaison, ne?"

The jounin forms his seal. The chuunins are readying their kunais. The clouds are amassing atop of the Konoha shinobis, and the sky is a roaring animal, boisterous and loud. It was an enigma for Hyuuga Hinata in such situations that arise in abrupt instances – just because she is the heiress of one of the most powerful clans in Leaf. The presence of the copy-nin is a mytery to boot. There is something in such happenstance that makes her self-conscious, thinking of the win-lose dichotomy, how it will take effect on her again. There are so many things that the white-haired scarecrow needs to explain – and as the kunais slither towards them; she thought, she quite thought of the kind of humanness the scarecrow is giving her. Never could _the_ fox give her an emotionality of selkf-transcendence, and _the_ scarecrow, he was teaching her to go beyond her way of the ninja. And her eyes are wide open, stetching her arms, and her fingers are moving in rapid reflexes. '_Shugo Hakke Rokujuuyonshou_!'

* * *

_tbc._


	5. Four

_More dialogues. Standard disclaimers apply. Review/flame welcome. Sorry for the typos._

_

* * *

_**Psychedelic Soul **

**_Preferences _**

* * *

"Y'know how the world is, Anko... it has its own peculiarities, it has things we cannot always rationalize," 

"So there were none?"

"Why are you so fond of asking questions of preferences anyway?"

"Nothing. Why? Genma's older than me... Kurenai's still new jounin and Asuma's better... Raidou's into Iruka – shit!"

"Raidou and Iruka? That's like, Hokage-sama and the toad-man together."

"..."

"Now I know why some don't want to share secrets with you,"

"Just don't tell, 'kay?"

"Just don't tell them I'm making the whole story up."

"..."

"Kidding."

"..."

"Who d'ya prefer to be with? The Third of the toad-man?" Oh may the Third rest in peace..."

"The fourth."

"I gave you options."

"But I have my own options,"

"Argh... everybody likes the Fourth..."

"He's so... cute! He smiles all the time, not to mention _he is_ the Fourth,"

"Eh? He smiles too much y'know,"

"Well he's also nice, there's one time at the academy, when he's still teaching little proud Kakashi... he isn't like other teachers, y'know, he doesn't preach, y'know,"

"Yeah sure,"

"And why d'ya like younger girls eh? You're like Jiraiya-sama,"

"His perverse anomalies are greater than mine for your information,"

"Yeah yeah – blah blah blah,"

"All girls look beautiful to him except the oldies,"

"..."

"..."

"Y'know that one? Why is he always wearing bandages? Is he blind or something?"

"Duh. I think it was an injury from the Nine-tail's incident. His other senses are greater though, I think he can hear us,"

"Let him. Is he good?"

"Good? He's chuunin. Of course you're better,"

"Is he a good chuunin?"

"You can say that."

"Then I'll take him."

"But everybody's good as chuunin."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"When will the meeting stop? Aren't there breaks or something?"

"With Tsunade-sama, there's not even a ten-second break. She wants meetings to finish earlier so she can have her daily dose of sake right away,"

"Not to mention gambling..."

"..."

"Hey Ebisu,"

"Eh?"

"Finish one more scene then we'll go to the room. What happened next?"

"You mean after the girl reads the document?"

"Duh. Yeah."

"Hmm. Let me think... oh yeah, so the girl was able to escape from her adversary, and she heads to some place, y'know, to rethink all those things, and what better way... I mean where would be the best place to introspect?"

"Well, the springs are prevalent places here,"

"Spot on. But y'see, she prefers the one in Mist, because she read this thing about a particular bath house in Mist, about how certain antediluvian rituals still take place, and she goes there to affirm the document's stories,"

"And what about the one pursuing her?"

"Well, to tell you honestly they will fall with each other, and that's where the real Icha Icha begins."

"But I thought she wanted to meditate? Y'know, without being hassled with all the drama..."

"...yeah, but y'know, she wanted to ruminate about those rituals, what makes them forbidden and all, those kinds of things,"

"Uh-okay."

"So there she went, and jounin goes there too. Without being caught of course. The next scene starts with the girl walking through the rocky pavements of the Mist, going straight to the most distant town of the village. All houses seem ancient, y'know, no actual beds and tables and appliances, like a real ancient town. People are dressed in certain off-white garments, and at the center of the town you could see a huge cauldron, a human size cauldron, with water of course, heated by burning apple wood–"

"How can you say it's apple wood?"

"Unripe apples – small ones that is, they're visible. And not only that, the fruit seems to be prevalent, like, it was the primary manufacturer of apples in Mist. Anyway, so, the girl's there, watching the townspeople, and she heads to some place and asks things about the town, y'know its deviance of Mist traditions. Then it becomes clear that they're celebrating their triumph against some clan which sought to destroy the town."

"Destroy the town?"

"Yes. And it seems to give emphasis on the heroism of the shinobis. They give triute to those who sacrificed their lives to protect the people's security. It happens annually, and a lot of Mist shinobis come to that place to partake in the event, and, y'know, to feel very important – not that they're not important of course, but the spotlight's not on the village, the day is for them."

"Hmm..."

"And the next thing it's night time, the town's crowded and music is playing in the distance. Various glass containers are visible in the embellished stage, and someone's there, and he plays an instrumental song with those glasses–"

"How could he play with those glasses?"

"They contain measured water, and he can create sounds by grazing his fingers on those glasses, and make rhythms out of it. And, the girl realizes it's the jounin – he was the one playing the–"

"!"

"What the heck was that?"

"It came from the office!"

"Wha–"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"–what happened?"

"Jiraiya-sama..."

"You shouldn't have done such dramatic entrance,"

"Ah Tsunade, getting impatient again... why can't these people take a break? They've been here for hours – tortured,"

"Tortured?"

"...eh, not really tortured, but – what's that fist doing in your palm?"

"Tsunade-sama..."

"You two, go to your seats. Jiraiya, come here inside or you'll be dead frog. Raidou, next agenda."

"Uhm, our – our next, uhm, agenda... danger of Akatsuki in the exams, Tsunade-sama,"

"Jiraiya, any update?"

"Hmm..."

"..."

"His slippers are noisy,"

"Shh! Are you even whispering?"

"I want Naruto outside the village already, he just came for some errands. The village will be at risk if he stays longer, the group's been moving, and they're targeting the Shukaku next."

"Shukaku?"

"They figured it all out, but because I'm with him they cannot close in on him,"

"So we're gonna have to forfeit his participation in the exams. In the meantime you go on training him so he can control the nine tails,"

"We should think of alternatives when he gets overwhelmed by it,"

"Tsunade,"

"Yeah–"

"You most probably have the Shodai genes–"

"Hmm..."

"Jiraiya-sama, what are they talking about?"

"Shizune, d'ya know why the late Shodai became the first kage?"

"Uhm–"

"Okay, listen up everyone. In the meantime let us pass this Akatsuki matter in another meeting. I'm going to designate jounin – I'll be giving you papers to gather the Root Division. Let's make particulars about the current status of the most able genins. Every teachers gather their documents about their cell, we'll return in this office in two hours. Recess."

* * *

"The Root Anbu? Asuma, what kind of shinobis are they?" 

"Kurenai, I think they're equated with the Seven Mist Swordsmen, I think they're better. No one except the Hokage and high ranking officers can know them, even see them. Even jounins don't know their workings,"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Aren't they disbanded?"

"I don't know. Where did you get that info Raidou?"

"I've been an Anbu, and people haven't been talking about them,"

"Akatsuki's just pain in the ass y'know,"

"Well I can still remember how Itachi easily countered by signature attack–"

"Hey Raidou – how is everything with Iruka?"

"!"

"Iruka?"

"What about Iruka Ebisu?"

"..."

"!"

"..."

"We're always talking about work. Why can't we talk about our personal lives?"

"None of your business Ebisu,"

"Ouch! Why are kicking my foot Anko?"

"..."

"!"

"This is embarrassing–"

"Well lets talk about our preferences. Let's pass it off first, and talk about Asuma."

"!"

"Anko, you're very talkative."

"I know Kurenai,"

"Why d'ya prefer Kurenai, Asuma?"

"..."

"Oh my he's blushing!"

"Shut up!"

"Is it because of those crimson eyes? Are they kekkei genkai Kurenai?"

"Not really."

"Okay. So, Asuma–"

"We're friends – friends y'hear?"

"Friends with benefits I must say,"

"Shut up Raidou!"

"We're so intrigued by things like techniques and people and power. Why can't we talk about ourselves eh?"

"Yeah, why can't we? So Anko, why d'ya like older men?"

"Heh. Older? Good shinobis to make it clear. With experiences, shaped by experiences,"

"And Genma?"

"Nah... I'm just messing with it. Genma's with Shizune anyway."

"Oh, I saw them dine in some restaurant the other night–"

"I think I saw them in the academy, always together in the academy–"

"Well, Genma's a little quieter today. Don't you think they're fighting or something?"

"Hmm... yeah, he's kind of quiet in the meeting–"

"And he's always staring at Ton-ton,"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Let's go back to Asuma."

"Hey!"

"No fair if you don't share your story. So, why–"

"Can we be a little subtler about this? I'm here too y'know,"

"Kurenai, you must be here. Don't you want to hear Asuma's say on this?"

"I already know."

"What!"

"..."

"!"

"We're doing fine on what we have right now, if there's something then we'll work it out. Happy, Anko?"

"Kind of."

"Well, I'm gonna have to leave 'coz my documents are in the academy–"

"So, Asuma's out. I think he's hurt or something."

"He's just embarrassed. So, Raidou, Ebisu's talking about Iruka–"

"Nothing's actually wrong y'know. I, for one thing, prefer youngsters. Lolita, that's what I have,"

"..."

"Okay, okay – I'm not really smitten over him, it's just that, y'know... we have something common, and we share it like every boys do."

"And what would that be?"

"Scars!"

"Shut up!"

"D'ya both touch each other's scars?"

"That's blatant Ebisu,"

"What?"

"...yeah we do."

"Ooh... kinky."

"What kinky about it? They're our marks of experience, Anko."

"Profound then."

"Well, we got our own kinds of perversion. Y'know Hayate – may he rest in peace – his girlfriend says his constant coughing makes him sexy,"

"And why does Shikamaru hate girls so much?"

"Eh? Where did that come from?"

"We can ask Asuma for that."

"And what about Sasuke?"

"He's so distant with the girls."

"And what does Tsunade-sama prefer? And ooh, what does the toad-man really prefer? Why is he making Icha Icha?"

"Fame–"

"Yeah, most probably."

"And – and Kakashi! What perversion does he have?"

"...!"

"Ebisu, why the cough?"

* * *

_tbc._


	6. Five

_Sorry for the typos. Disclaimers apply._

* * *

The sandstone fence strays from the central park as foggy particles harvest themselves in such deepness, amassing nature's prowess – uttering extended dins and the burning petals of shidarezakura become sheer diversion in all thse. Weeping cherries enclose them, and at the Thunder shinobi's left – they overwork, beautifully ablaze and their resonance were brittle as they color themselves darkly ashen, transfiguring into dusts; rhythmically propulsive against the cool breeze. In the brief stillness of the clouds and the soaring wedges – more lightning are visible, shifting rapidly like they were already there from the beginning. 

In these, the night is a blood-stricken one.

* * *

**Psychedelic Soul**

**_Of Remediation and Other Gestures_**

* * *

Hatake Kakashi marvels at the scenic silhouettes of raw vigor – and but never the less fatal, silhouettes that shall run amuck if one ventures to pierce through the byakugan lass' absolute defense. And he's ill at ease in his motionlessness inside such hemispheric vault of impeccable power, withstanding the amperage of the jounin fiend's offense and rendering the chuunins' projectiles void as they strike Hinata's field. The scarecrow smiles in both distress and mitigation, knowing too well the situation. 

"Hinata, you distract the others–"

"I... I can't easily do that,"

The byakugan strikes of divinity halt. "Do you still remember what Kurenai-san told you on your last training?" And he whispers, patting her shoulder, the chuunins already in somersaults of positions; Hinata straightens her left arm then, flexing her palms, moving her legs in steadiness.

"Don't be uptight," and Kakashi was already gyrating in the air, propelling his kunai at the running chuunins, counterbalancing himself as he dodges the flying shurikens with easy reflexes and thrusting his foot at the other's face whilst moving in close towards the life-size shidarezakura torch. Two ninjas pursue him – and the white-haired scarecrow can only do so much with his kinesthetic assaults.

On the other side, Hyuuga Hinata's eyes valuate the faculty of the three shinobis in front of her, taking glimpse of their own energy coils – thinking of several steps as she affirms she's always ahead of herself – puckering her lips at the incoming shurikens. Hurling herself backward she grazes her left palm at the rough grounds, pushing her weight to her feet as the chuunin attacks from behind – diving with his kunai – and the byakugan heiress curves herself clockwise as she nullifies the chuunin's arsenal with her right foot, straining even more the limits of her body and kicks the ninja; the others rush forward, more than ready to strike – and the youngster pivots an almost immaculate human circle, leaving the three grimacing, shifting themselves yet again.

"You're pretty good for a genin," one of them chides, forming a seal. "Let's see if you can dodge this!"

"Hinata stares at the seal sequence, astonished at the byakugan sight of electrical energy – instantaneously but slowly revolving at his fingertips as they magnetize the kunais, moving slightly against the winds. The other takes his fuumashuriken out, manipulating it as in puppetry, making it fly at easy angles and towards Hinata.

"Rai-kugutsu no justu!"

* * *

Kakashi springs up from the ruined limestone hurdle, evading the sets of blades as his unmasked eye copes with the speed of the Thunder jounin running towards him, jumping atop of him and tries to strike an electric punch; the copy-nin barely avoids with immediate cleverness, feeling the frail ampere but nonetheless expresses a gawking face at the discomfort. The jounin halts, staring at the scarecrow and with apparent sarcasm, and ridicule. "What happened to the legendary copy-nin? You can't even make a kawarimi," 

"Tsk."

"Why? Stone ninjas got you stoned?"

And he smirks, a hyena to the scarecrow's fiercer eye; with nuisance to the Thunder rebels he recedes his sight, staring now at Hinata's prowess, shunning from her adversaries' ninjutsu, giving out herself – exhausting herself amidst the depths of her weaknesses. There arises in his mind's eye an immediate awareness of schmaltz and wonder, the feeling of witnessing the picturesque dream of his mind's eye, the transitional feeling of his own perversion – so much so with everybody else. He stands erect then, turning his gaze at the Thunder jounin-rebel. "Honestly – something along those lines bald man But–"

The other smirks. "Well would you look at that,"

Hyuuga Hinata drifts like the blinking polaris and but jazzes gracefully as she avoids those flying kunais – piercing the sandstones, permeating the rocks with sufficed electricity as the fuumashuriken flies behind her – and she jumps, whirling upwards to evade the chuunins' offenses. She stands against the razed walls, eyes as steadfast as ever, abruptly springing up again and the huge shuriken puncures the wall – missing its target and but with the kunais striking the byakugan lass in successions, circular in pattern, slashing out her coat.

"Heh. We almost thought we'd never hit you,"

And the opportunistic rebel takes fast strides, moving close towards the genin heiress as electricity comes into byakugan's sight – in his fists – and with the swiftest reflexes from the kunoichi he smacks the barriers instead. She looks at the slender crater, imagining her death – thinking about survival, about the scrutiny of her might. "Argh–"

She feels the current on her body – the aftershock of the other's chakra – falling on her knees as the chuunin turn into hyenas. She thinks, ruminating about the moving entities behind her, moving entities across time and space and she becomes more conscious, looking at the moving kunais at her right with her unspoiled vision – and she becomes more determined. She sees the electric waves from the Thunder ninja, empathizing onto the feeling of paralysis and remembering what she learned all this time. At her left was flowing water, certain waters flowing towards the central park's corners, broken and destroyed from the rebels' disrespect of the town's culture. If she can make sharper silhouettes of energy at the rear, if she can make wider silhouettes of energy at the right side, if she can move towards the grinning shinobi in front of her as she makes sharper and wider silhouettes of energy – it was a good plan, but what are the alternatives?

'_Shugo Hakke Rokujuuyonshou!_'

This time around she has ninety eight arms, uptight but fast, moving in rapid progression; and of three hundred forty degrees of reflexes she emits her chakra, valuating yet again her capacities and her energy – all those needed for such deadly vault, lighting the park anew and the townsfolk outside watches the bright pallid light in the distance.

"It's... like the half-moon of our town," the old lay whispers, seizing the arm of her son. "Wha–"

The fuumashuriken ventures yet again crossing the porch of the lass' byakugan field, depriving itself of effectiveness as it whirls upwards, falling down procedurally and but fights against Hinata's energy – now randomly moving – and boisterously soars towards the Thunder chuunin. He dodges the flying star and destroys the stone pipes instead. The man glares, seeing the kunai void of force and promptly alight to the rocky earth – and as Hinata's eyes summon more seams at her temple she moves forward, halting, sliding between the chuunin's legs; placing her heaviness on her feet and she rolls in solid earth, bringing herself to the waters.

"Darn that brat!" On her knees and she heaves deep breaths, her body as spirited conductor as the waters move, little typhoons of water and they for senbon needles. They rise in exalted levels and but with no regard for any more precision they launch themselves to the chuunins – and more liquid become thread-like implements, flying. They dart however, but stubbornness in such happenstance is efficient as they perforate them.

"Sadly though," the chuunin insurgent whispers in a manner audible for all of them, taking his proud step behind Hinata, leaving his jounin leader. The bald dissenter strikes in the air as Kakashi endeavors to rally round the kunoichi. Hinata's byakugan fades like sunset – slow but certain – and her tresses tighten, stretched velveteen threads against the enemy's hand, reeling her head to boot. His other hand grips a kunai, almost geared for a strike. "We need your bloodline,"

Hinata closes her eyes. Was all these of pure significance? Her latticed chemise tightens as the other man grabs her nape, seizing it with more than enough zeal. Well to say the least she has exhausted possible ways to attack and defend with what she has; she was able to fight – to be _scrutinized_. Shinobis must not fear death, because otherwise they should have engaged themselves into other things in the first place. It was a choice – it was her decision to continue on living risking her life, and she did what she can do. She remembers her family, the stubborn fox and the enigmatic scarecrow, she remembers her teammates – and Akamaru, Kurenai-sensei and the whole Konoha. She feels warmer this time, and she can feel the slithering blade at her back.

Did she really exhaust her possibilities? Did she really make the choice to possess such bloodline, to become a kunoichi? Did she really do what she can do?

The metal is cold against her skin, scuffing and she pirouettes with tremendous haste and vigor – and suddenly she sees the Thunder chuunin disappear in pitch black smoke, hearing his most distant cries. She gets confounded, looking at how the ashen dusts of burned weeping cherry associate with the dark smokes of unfamiliar phenomenon. She activates her byakugan, immediately perceiving the other shinobi by her rearside, the other shinobi and his electric fist. She forms a seal, her hands glowing in translucent whiteness – and with a swift pivotal jump she dodges the punch, sending the his right arm sideways, leaping now as she kicks his chest – facing him now – concentrating her might in her fingers and striking his shoulders thrice; sprawling her palms as she not only disrupts the inner energy coils but damages his muscles as well.

"Hakke – irou jyuken!"

"It's... it's sharingan!" The bald jounin declares next, looking at the scarecrow in utter contempt.

"I may not be able to form seals, but I have sharingan." His eyes are steady, unperturbed by any other hindrances seemingly wanting to raze his existence to the ground. He stands transfixed in his own determination in spite of his growing susceptibility – and but still unflustered against the dusts and smokes, even the weeping cherry revolving against all of them like autumn maple showers, and their shadows cast by the flames twitch in rhythm of their silence, in rhythm of their gazes – following the melody as the shidarezakuras, the dusts and smokes bob in various routes, up and down they dance as the breeze gets warmer.

But with his chakra coils brusquely reordered, and his discharge of energy a compulsion and a forced necessity; Hinata expresses an unsurprised look as Kakashi promptly stumbles on his knees, sighing heavily – negatively amiable with the punch and he violently flutters mid-air but never the less alighting upon the grounds. As more happenstance disclose themselves to the young byakugan heiress, Kakashi becomes mystique of a scarecrow; such embodiment of enigma! And if more are disclosed onto her wakefulness she could be a witness to the suicide of her own _innocence._

But innocence from what?

And so she passes on quickly, swiftly towards the copy-nin as she takes out the explosive tag – charged and ballistic as it moves towards the titillated jounin-rebel, trying too much to distract him – and acknowledging her own mark of vulnerability at the realization of her decreasing energy. She positions herself, flexing beside the copy-nin – and finding it hard to breathe.

"You don't stand a chance against me!" the jounin says, clearing his perception as sparks of electromotive force barricades the jounin from the explosion. Four surviving chuunins stand beside him. "Bring the girl over here,"

And yet again they commenced on their somersaults, approaching the Konoha shinobis – with their last kunais they stab the rocks, swiveling their bodies and Kakashi is now a vanguard evading taijutsu as he seizes Hinata, sending her on the other side. The girl of absolute sight marvels, her thoughts meandering on vast paradigms – an acoustic sensation of moving feet and she looks behind, seeing the chuunin, supplied with more readiness as his kunai lifts up in air.

"Got you!"

Hyuuga Hinata flinches as her eyes close at the anticipatory response to the other's assault, losing slight balance in the riposte of her body moments after giving things clarity – the kunai suspended in the air – and she watches on, gazing at the motionless chuunin and auditioning at the shrieks of the motionless chuunin – taking dreamy glimpse of those little dark entities of destruction, moving from his legs, traveling to his chest with buzzing sounds – his neck then, covering the Thunder rebel with kikai bugs and consuming his energy, feeding on his previous readiness, savoring his fears. She hears footsteps next.

"Hinata,"

She stares at her teammate, baffled. "Shi–Shino-kun..."

"You're always uptight," he says straightforwardly, his destruction bugs returning to his sleeves. He places his right hand to his pocket, looking then at the nodding Hinata.

"Shino-kun... I'm – I'm always uptight... but y'know I've tried on... the irou jyuken..."

"That's good to know," he states, the destruction bugs permeating out of his sleeves as he extends his arms over distances, looking at the running chuunin. Hinata smiles nevertheless, looking at her thousands of teammates – remembering she forgot to commit them into her memory earlier.

"Take Kakashi-sensei. We'll take care of this."

"We?"

She looks at the other side.

"Oi Kakashi! Why are you so uptight eh? Look at yourself! Too spent!"

"Ebisu... how–"

"Shino's bugs were patrolling when they saw white light in the distance, and it's Hinata's kaiten. They sure are perceptive–" They leap from the ground, evading the lightning. "I thought it's done."

"Hiashi-sama didn't know they had accomplices and I had to deal with them first,"

"It's _fascinating_, you took too long," Ebisu kids. The thunder jounin forms a seal, and as the earth constructs cavities energy balls arise – covering himself as they orbit around him like the sun.

"You go on ahead... HQ's not that far... and you should do something about your wounds,"

And the white-haired copy-nin departs, running fast as he avoids the jounin's kunais – barely evading the lightning as Ebisu counters with a fire technique, creating an explosion and generating fogs, and diverting them all. Kakashi halts, looking at the heiress. Aburame Shino stands unmoved, unattached to any more hesitation and more kikai bugs enclose him, flying as they assimilate each other's existence and moving roundabout.

"We should go,"

"Ri-right. Shino-kun..."

The Aburame youngster fixes his stare at the heiress.

"Thank you," and she thus dashes beside the legendary copy-nin – both of them reeking in inclined exposure this time around. Shino moves, blocking any more pursuit against them. Ebisu stares at the defiant Thunder jounin.

"Oi! _I am a gentleman... such an ultra-low-class skill will never work against me_!"

* * *

The most clamorous sounds they could hear were the crisp and firm odes of their feet against the words as they spring up towards the deeper depths of the forest, passing the townspeople by, passing the shrine by as the Leaf ninjas evade any more injury – in the corporeal flux as they move from one tree to another – and the weak jounin can see shidarezakura leaves twirl, remnants of the town's destruction as they slip from Hinata's grasp. And they run, away from the town and away from any more perils, making their way in spite of their own vulnerabilities. And but the furtherance of their sentimental misery is made manifest with their relegation to tacitness, and with only such sounds they understand each other's uneasiness, with Hinata following the scarecrow whither, with Kakashi availing for himself any reaction from the girl of absolute sigh, even a slight purse of the lips. It was an outcome of contrariness, the kind of atmosphere they have; and not because of each other's enigmas now, but because both of them is acquainted with each other's secrecies and shared perversions – and but which demand explication solely from the white-haired jounin. 

They reach a seemingly stark cave, and upon their entrance they are received by several torches.

"Argh–"

"Ka–Kakashi-sensei!" The Hyuuga heiress walks him further into the cave, aiding him recline in a walled corner. "Stay here, Kakashi-sensei–"

"Hinata–"

"...not–not now, Kakashi... sensei," she whispers audible for them both, and it sounded more of an imperative than a statement.

And so he hands himself to his own overcast and burdensome sighs, just a wide-eyed observer at the girl he vowed to protect when his father opted risking her life over the maintenance of the clan's power – to such idiotic mission. He sees her picking up several pumice and rhyolite rocks, amassing shidarezakuras and gratingly reducing them into smooth concoction, her images becoming bigger to his enervated self as she sits beside the jounin. The timbre of rocks against each other was bamboo against wet pebbles by the gardens, creating more pressure and friction. "Their pigments can... reduce pain and inflammation of the muscles... and they can raise the immune system,"

She lacerates her right sleeves. She's a wide-eye familiarity to the languid copy-nin – long enough for them to feel their creatives selves and the butterflies gathering like stark clouds in all places. It was complete dilapidation of ease, the way Kakashi sheds the best off of his body, the way Hinata ensures it would not graze his shoulders and wounded arms. And it's ostensible now that the byakugan lass could only attain for herself pieces of her sight, the way the dark clouds choke her, the way the butterflies swarm into Kakashi, electrifying him, feeling yet again the revolutionaries' attacks, and he suffocates even more.

He stares outside at the feeling of whiffs of air. Only the moon is visible from there, and everything else is vague and threatening; attempting to investigate on the causality of his madness, trying to see the only star to see if he's sane as ever. Slack but with delicate fingers Hinata cuts the sleeves of the scarecrow's garment with kunai, revealing to her the corollaries of his sacrifices – and each movement of their hands was mental torpor, as if they reside in illusions of thoughts and thoughts of illusions – heavenly slow and discloses to Hinata more pale skin, albeit slightly calloused and rigid; and both of them are bodies of awkward equilibrium as Kakashi takes his upper clothing off. And but the mask – never remove the mask.

He stares then at the weeping cherry. She places them in her torn sleeve, getting the herb together even more with her right hand. "It's... they're cold," he speaks in a gesture, feeling those dainty fingers more than the medicine, closing his eye – inasmuch as he yields to remove his sharingan sight off of Hinata's byakugan eyes, in his blood-hued eye of expediency there arises the disclosure of the _secrecies_. And but the mask – never remove the mask.

She lacerates next her left sleeve, tearing it for bandages.

"My kit... I forgot my kit... Kakashi-sensei," she whispers as she covers the wounds and they were more painful than ever. What things make it all hurt too much for the scarecrow? And she heaves a sigh, concentrating – and forming her last seal of the day.

"What the–"

Her hands are automaton, guiding themselves to his shoulder.

"These–they won't do much Kakashi-sensei... I – since I'm only on the seventh level of shousen, but it would ease the disruption... I think–"

"They're fine, thank you... but–" He clutches her left hand, endeavoring to move it with his shaky arms; and delicately at that as he direct it to her. "You need that, too. Argh–"

"You consumed all your energy to... to protect me,"

"I'm... I'm doing my mission,"

"Why pursue me – days before?"

"To test your skills,"

"...why?"

His sharingan eye looks intently on those inquisitive byakugan eyes; and despite Hinata's bloodline of immaculate vision she still cannot see through his motivations – and on what grounds could she base her presuppositions? Where will she find the strength in this kind of mission? Is her mind poisoned? And she thinks, only by portending can she find cure. Only the torches seem to speak, about them, and they turn more afire, casting darker shadows, seemingly instigating something else to discourse about.

"You... you need... more bandages, Kakashi-sensei..." She stares at his sharingan eyes as it looks on minute remaining articles of their torn clothing. Everything seems for both them a gesture and knowledge of eclecticism in all these – and the mask, never don the mask for bandages.

* * *

_tbc._

_A/N: More things are clarified ne? Well, some things to say: (1) Kakashi has used the Mangekyou form of the sharingan. Go figure. (2) Hinata's irou jyuken is a combination of her kekkei genkai and chakra no mesu as in for medic-nins. Is it possible in the Naruto world? I dunno. (3) All other techniques by the Thunder ninjas are non-canon and derived from certain techniques, and the medicinal uses of shidarezakura can be true, or not. Family of cherries contain chemicals and anti-oxidants that promote healing. Italized line from Ebisu come leafninja site. That's all._


	7. Six

After several months of countless editing and the dying motivation to write fanfiction, this chapter should be a good start to inspire me some more ideas. Definitely lame, but enjoy anyway.

**

* * *

**

Hyuuga Hiashi

Jounin, 43

Mission Date: June 20.

Mission Class: C, C

Mission Status: Complete

Other details: Another mission to be assigned to Hatake Kakashi, Ebisu Emi, Aburame Shino. Completed as of July 5.

Mission Summary:

_June 20._ Initial mission was to attend a conference regarding the next chuunin exams to be held at the Grass Country, as requested, and report details to Godaime. Said hidden village requesting for an alliance with Konoha and Suna to aid in security against Iwagakure's threats, to which aforementioned village, in return, shall establish parity rights with raw materials.

_June 20, 1:30PM._ Conference was 30 minutes late due to some inconvenience at the village's border, and has to stay for 2 days for negotiations and initial investigation.

_June 21._ Iwagakure started the first attack, assassinating the guards at the border. Daimyos' negotiations declined. Grass country in preparation for the next offense.

_June 22._ Was advised by the village that Iwagakure has plans of spoiling Konoha clan secrets. Has passed separate report regarding this matter.

_June 23._ Requested for separate mission to investigate on the case of Hyuugas. Assassination of people involved encouraged.

_June 30._ Request for separate mission granted. Confidential report to be submitted the soonest possible time, to be passed to the Mission Reports Department to avoid suspicions.

* * *

**Psychedelic Soul**

_**Taxonomies

* * *

**_

"Ugh,"

"No one's after you, or your green tea, Ebisu..."

"Ha... went down the wrong way eh?"

"Stupid mouth,"

"And now you curse your own mouth for gobbling up too much,"

"Hey..."

"..."

"!"

"?"

"I've heard my name."

"Kakashi... I thought you had a mission..."

"..."

"…?"

"What mission was it, Kakashi? A-class?"

"Yeah Raidou,"

"What is it this time around eh?"

"Someone in the bingo book."

"Heh. Don't trust the bingo book anymore. It lists C and then you got an A."

"Right on Kurenai... I got a B on my last mission and it turned out to be A in the end..."

"Did I miss anything?"

"You were two hours late. Of course you'd miss everything."

"Tsunade-sama never gives people rest..."

"She's exhausting all her means..."

"And why were you so early Kakashi?"

"Ebisu told me I took long on my last mission so I had to redeem myself."

"...…!!!"

"Ebisu... you look pale."

"He's pale, Anko."

"Green tea isn't your thing?"

"I'm gonna have to battle this out in the bathroom..."

"Eew."

"See 'ya around..."

"..."

"So... Kakashi..."

"Eh?"

"…"

"We were actually discussing about the preferences and... trivialities of our lives when you interrupted us… and since I have mentioned your name, and since you're here, you're gonna have to participate in this very... _enlightening_ discourse of ours."

"I'ma take a raincheck Anko..."

"What exactly do you like about Icha-icha?"

"I'm gonna go now…"

"What do you know about Shizune and Genma?"

"Raidou... I can't believe this..."

"You're so fond of your missions you're an automaton already..."

"..."

"…"

"…?"

"Well?"

"I think it's something to do with Ton-ton's child."

"Ton-ton? Who the hell is Ton-ton?"

"Shizune's familiar."

"The pig?"

"She died from a mission. She had a child though,"

"But... they look exactly the same..."

"Genma's awkward with the familiar."

"And how did y'know Kakashi?"

"Two jounins having quarrels over some pig? That's..."

"Heh, because you haven't been in such situation with Iruka."

"Kurenai!"

"…I knew that already Raidou."

"You nosy little scarecrow."

"So you're still in touch with yourself. That's good to know."

"..."

"Hey Kakashi... what are your preferences with girls? Do I make a candidate?"

"..."

"And what is it about Icha-icha huh? Y'know Ebisu told me about a film adaptation of some volume. Did you see it?"

"…what _film_?"

"Some festival blah blah blah..."

"There were three so far. All of them had festivals."

"Oh."

"Really. He amazes me."

"Yeah... he knows too much he keeps it to himself..."

"Eh? Kurenai... what's with Asuma today? He seemed cheerless when I passed him by at the academy..."

"..."

"…"

"Must be the thing you said earlier."

"Never mind that. You always want to get right back at someone else eh, Kakashi?"

"_Jounins and special jounins in the lobby... the meeting shall resume in five minutes... please get back to the conference room immediately. I repeat, jounins and special jounins in the lobby... the meeting shall resume in five minutes... please get back to the conference room immediately._"

"That early? I thought it was an hour of break?"

"Iruka's voice is just so sexy over speakers... don't you think Raidou?"

"Shut up Anko!"

* * *

**Mission Report on Shidarezakura Incident**

Mission Class: B – A

Mission Status: Complete

Other details: Attached herewith the mission file for Hyuuga Hinata. Separate reports from each mission team member.

A. **Ebisu Emi**

Special Jounin, 25

Mission Class: C, B

Mission Date: July 3.

Mission Status: Complete

_July 3, 10AM._ Initially sent as stealth investigator regarding Hyuuga Hiashi-sama's report. To join Hatake Kakashi after 24 hours for the mission.

_July 3, 3:30PM._ Was not able to access Iwagakure borders. Was able to inform Hatake Kakashi about a certain group of Iwagakure shinobis following Hyuuga Hinata, one and a half kilometers to Shidarezakura City.

_July 3, 9PM. _Was able to gather info regarding Hyuuga Hiashi-sama's concern. Iwagakure allied with missing-nins from Lightning Country, also tied with 2 hunter-nins from Mist banished from their village due to killing their comrades in a mission. Said hunter-nins responsible for killing Mist's daimyo. To be investigated further.

_July 4, 7PM._ Rendezvous with Aburame Shino and Hatake Kakashi to discuss final details for the mission. Hatake Kakashi not present. Patrolling the surroundings for any spies led us to become reinforcement for Hatake Kakashi and Hyuuga Hinata against Lightning Country's missing-nins. Completed the separate mission as of this time.

_July 5, 1:30AM._ Hatake Kakashi and Hyuuga Hinata have to recover at the headquarters. Did not disclose any information to Hyuuga Hinata.

* * *

"We currently have eleven genin cells, Sunagakure has five, Kirigakure has four, Tsuchigakure has six, Grass Countrry has ten, and Hidden Cloud has seven. It has reduced from forty-seven last chuunin exam–"

"Aoba, mark Hidden Clouds off of the list."

"Wha–"

"_What's happening Ebisu? You were in the last mission with Kakashi, right? Against Hidden Clouds?"_

"_Shh."_

"There are problems with the Lightning and I have to negotiate with them first."

"Tsunade-sama..."

"In the meantime we would have four countries to invite. We still have to reduce our cells to minimize any more expenditure and avoid injuries from participants not yet fit for the exam. Aoba, what is the status of the cells?"

"Team one, Daichi, Futaba and Kouji. Jounin leader Kotetsu Hagane has nominated to forego his team's participation."

"They're not yet ready... especially now that new rules have been made."

"I see."

"He just received the jounin vest, that's why,"

"Shh!"

"Team two. Matsuri, Nobori and Oukei. Jounin leader Mimoro Hamaki has nominated for the team's participation."

"The team is in good shape this time around, they now know genjutsus and more taijutsu styles to complement for the exam,"

"Team three. Moegi, Udon and Konohamaru. Jounin leader Ebisu has nominated to forgo his team's participation."

"Why are you foregoing Konohamaru's participation? You were his special tutor when he was still in the academy, right? And he's the grandson of the late Third."

"Yes, I see that Hamaki-san. But bloodline isn't the issue here, it's skill. Honestly... Konohamaru... and the others... they're doing pretty well in ninjutsus but they still have to learn more. They're weak at taijutsu and Konohamaru needs more attention, if he is to fulfill Konoha's expectations..."

"...…"

"Move on."

"Team four. Yoshino Kaede, Tanzou and Shinta. Jounin leader Shizune has nominated for the team's participation."

"Wait... I'm... I'm – cancel their participation, Aoba-san... they're... I dunno..."

"..."

"Team five. Samo, Chen, and Yun. Jounin leader Inuzuka Tsume has nominated for the team's participation."

"It's the best rookie team after graduating from the academy. Enough said."

"_Pompous."_

"_Who's pompous?"_

"_Shh! I'ma ask Kurenai to let Hinata join. Then we'll see who's best fucking rookie."_

"_You're just jealous because you don't have a cell, Anko."_

"_Whatever Ebisu... hey, is the movie ending in that Mist-whatever festival?"_

"_Uhm... yeah, kind of."_

"_Tell me–"_

"Team eight. Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba. Non-applicable for Aburame Shino, substituted by Hyuuga Hanabi, as consented. Jounin leader Yuuhi Kurenai nominated for Hinata's non-participation."

"Only Hinata?"

"Yes Tsunade-sama. Hinata is currently under my tutelage, as well as other consultations from other jounins. She's still in training until we see her fit for the exam."

"What? But she's a kick-ass already against the graduates!"

"Shh Anko!"

"She has consented on it."

"What about the two?"

"Hyuuga Hanabi should be fit for the exam. She was able to overpower Hinata's byakugan... and Inuzuka really wanted to join the exam, though he still lacks discipline he'd be good to go, too."

"It will initially be a three-man team. Who's the third?"

"…I would like to suggest Haruno Sakura..."

"!"

"_Did you hear that?"_

"_Yeah I did."_

"_What is she thinking?"_

"_I dunno. Come to think about it, the girl doesn't have a cell anymore..."_

"I know she's under your tutelage Tsunade-sama, but please let her join the exams…"

"??"

"...okay. Move on."

"Team nine. Ame, Choko, and Dango. Jounin leader Sarugaku Tsuzumi nominates for the non-participation of the team."

"Since I think a lot of previous genins would be joining the exam, I've considered Anko's words and I think they won't be able to fight it off against the previous rookie nine..."

"Very well."

"Team ten. Chouji and Yamanaka Ino, non-applicable for Nara Shikamaru. Jounin leader Sarutobi Asuma nominates for the team's non-participation until they find a substitute."

"..."

"I would like to make one!"

"Gai..."

"..."

"What is it that you want?"

"_He was fast,"_

"_Yeah tell me about it."_

"I really really would like to suggest that my precious Rock Lee be included in the exam because the spring of youth is calling him, _to experience youth and run into the setting sun!_"

"...what about Ten-ten, Gai?"

"She does not want to join... yet, and I truly understand. Tsunade-sama please let Rock Lee join the exam…"

"..."

"I will... do anything for my precious student!"

"Do what you want, just stop doing that. Move on."

"Team eleven. Shibire, Minoji and Tanzou no Kimi. Jounin leader Shiranui Genma nominates for the participation of the team,"

"They've been stubborn and rowdy but I've managed to discipline them."

"Okay. Jounin leaders pass their records tomorrow. Any more inquiries should be made to the administrators of the exam. I'm designating the non-participating jounins and special jounins."

"All of them Tsunade?"

"Any problems, Homura?"

"..."

"We will have to discuss about scheduling the next exam, and the Grass Country volunteered to host the next exam."

"I think that they're using the other countries so they would be protected when the Stone tries invading them again..."

"Homura, I think they've signed a peace treaty already."

"..."

"And we cannot afford to host another exam."

"..."

"Okay. Special jounins will be designated as examiners. Jounins will have to go complete missions. We don't want to get poor now, right?"

"_Beh Kakashi."_

"_?"_

"Aoba will send manuals to the special jounins, and a chuunin examiner will accompany them. We will schedule seven cells a day so it would take about a week. We shall hold the final matches at the stadium, so we must reconstruct it in the coming days."

"Tsunade-sama, what if more teams pass the initial exams?"

"?"

"..."

"Will we be having preliminary matches before the finals?"

"_We will not let that happen_. I'm sure you all know what that means,"

"But–"

"_Tsunade's a l'il political today eh?"_

"_Yes Jiraiya-sama... She does not like it, but she has to do something..."_

"_What happened to her hopeful self?"_

"_The hopeful is not here, probably outside this building."_

"_Hahaha... funny Shizune."_

"Expect your manuals tomorrow. Kakashi, Ebisu, stay here. Everybody dismissed."

* * *

B. **Aburame Shino**

Chuunin, 14.

Mission Class: C, B

Mission Date: July 3.

Mission Status: Complete

_July 3, 10AM._ Initially sent as stealth investigator regarding Hyuuga Hiashi-sama's report, to join Hatake Kakashi after 24 hours for the separate mission. Initially to conduct investigation about Hyuuga Hiashi-sama's report.

_July 3, 5:45PM. _Was able to gain access at the Iwagakure territory using patrol and stealth bugs. Was able to gain access regarding some plans against Konoha's clans by spoiling their secrets which would be conducted by disguised missions which would lure certain clans. Has passed a separate report on target clans.

_July 3, 9:45PM._ Was able to gain some information regarding Iwagakure's plans against the Grass Country. A shinobi from Grass Country, who is now a citizen of Mist through a negotiated naturalization between Grass and Mist, killed the second-in-command samurai in Earth Country. Grass country has negotiated with Iwagakure regarding this matter but was declined of any compromise. The assassination is speculated as revenge. This matter to be discussed with Ebisu-san's information.

_July 4, 7PM._ Rendezvous with Ebisu-san and Kakashi-san for final details about the mission. Kakashi not present. Was led to Shidarezakura City patrolling the surroundings and as reinforcement for Hatake Kakashi and Hyuuga Hinata. Enemies killed. Mission accomplished as of the moment.

_July 5, 1:30AM ._ Hatake Kakashi and Hyuuga Hinata have to recover at the headquarters. Did not disclose any information to Hyuuga Hinata.

C. **Hatake Kakashi**

Jounin, 27

Mission Class: B, A

Mission Date: July 3.

Mission Status: Complete

_July 3, 10AM._ Initially sent to follow Hyuuga Hinata unnoticed. Ebisu Emi and Aburame Shino to be contacted after 24 hours while they gather information.

_July 3, 3:35PM._ Information from Ebisu Emi discloses the location of a certain Iwagakure shinobis 60 kilometers from their border, one and a half kilometers to Shidarezakura City. To follow Hinata unnoticed.

_July 3, 8:40PM. _Initial investigation uncovers Iwagakure's alliance with a group of missing-nins from Lightning Country. To conduct further investigation, and Ebisu Emi and Aburame Shino to gather information regarding Iwagakure's plans against Konoha. Encounter against Iwagakure shinobis inevitable and imperative for the mission.

_July 4, 6:10PM._ Said Lightning Country's missing-nins negotiated with Raikage about renewal of the case against the Hyuuga clan, but was declined because of the treaty signed nine years prior to negotiation. Missing-nins left the country to conduct the case themselves, and allied with Iwagakure from unknown reasons. Further information to be gathered. Hyuuga Hinata has been identified by the missing-nins.

_July 4, 7PM ._ Was not able to rendezvous with Aburame Shino and Ebisu Emi. Encounter with the missing-nins inevitable and imperative. Sustained minor to slightly major injuries due to earlier encounter. Hyuuga Hinata sustained minor to slightly second degree injuries. Ebisu Emi and Aburame Shino came as reinforcement. Missing-nins killed. Mission completed as of this time.

_July 5, 2:30PM._ Further details to be discussed as scheduled by Godaime.

* * *

"See 'ya Anko,"

"But what about the film?"

"It's not like I'll be here forever. Or can't your libido wait?"

"Libido? Whatever Ebisu. I'll go with Kurenai. See 'ya later."

"Anko, I said you're dismissed,"

"Sorry Tsunade-sama..."

"And close the door. Shizune, summon Hiashi Hyuuga. I need to talk to him."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"_A close-door meeting? What is it about?_ Later, Kakashi, Ebisu."

"Hmp."

"This will take longer than the usual. Grab a seat you both,"

"_...what is it this time Kakashi? Y'know anything?"_

"_Slightly. I think the chuunin has something more to say,"_

"_Chuunin? Y'mean Shino?"_

"_Yeah–"_

"!"

"Come in Shino, and oh, grab a seat,"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Okay. I know that the mission's a success, and I'd like to commend you. But you all know that's not what I want to say."

"What is it Tsunade-sama?"

"I'd like to know the status of some info left behind in your report. They may pose danger to Konoha in the future and we need to document it. And... something else,"

"Something else?"

"About Hinata."

* * *

_A copy of Hyuuga Hinata's mission file:_

**Hyuuga Hinata**

Genin, 14.

Mission Date: July 3.

Mission Class: C

Mission Status: Failed

Other details: Scroll was retrieved by Hatake Kakashi. Attached herewith a request of disclosure of information regarding some inquiries about the mission.

_July 3, 8AM._ Was sent near the borders of Stone Village to retrieve a scroll which supposedly belongs to Nidaime.

_July 3, 5:30PM._ Encountered a man with no forehead protector to identify which village he hailed. Allegedly the thief, but was not able to retrieve the scroll and identify him as well.

_July 4, 10AM. _Was able to reach one border city of Earth Country. Gathered information about the unidentified man.

_July 4, 6PM._ Met Hatake Kakashi-san at Shidarezakura City.

_July 4, 7PM._ Encountered several enemies from Lightning Country, something about the case of the Hyuugas. Sustained minor to slightly second-degree injuries. Ebisu (surname) and Aburame Shino came as reinforcement.

_July 5, 2AM. _Hatake Kakashi-san and shinobi herein has to recover. Hatake Kakashi was able to retrieve the scroll earlier from the same man encountered.

* * *

"A conference was held yesterday and Iwagakure has denied any association from the accomplices you've mentioned Kakashi..."

"It's a convenient thing for them to do Hokage-sama."

"I know. We have to establish evidence before making any demands for punitive damages."

"We're... we'll demand punitive damages?"

"Of course. It's been a tradition during our time, they all know what that meant."

"And our alliance with Suna will make mattes worse for them."

"About Lightning Country Hokage-sama..."

"The Lightning Country's a little thorny. We can't make any demands yet, since the people you've dealt with aren't technically Lightning's citizens..."

"They got no citizenship? That's real downer for them."

"Ebisu, secure the documents for Iwagakure case. Shino will handle the Lightning."

"About Hinata... Hokage-sama,"

"Yes I know what you mean Shino. Hiashi shall be here any moment now."

"I've presumed Hinata already knew this the moment she dealt with Kakashi, right?"

"?"

"!!"

"Tsunade-sama, I..."

"What is it Kakashi?"

"I... I told her fib."

* * *

_TBC. Ebisu's surname is a fib, too. Anyway, as lame as this chapter is, a flame/review is welcome._


	8. Seven

_Some references to previous chapters and my other Naruto fics can be read so go figure. I know, I know, bear with the fic's audacity. Think non-linear. Standard disclaimers, everyone._

* * *

The seemingly pastel hues of the cerulean sky against the backdrop of invisible stars have let the light weep into trance when Hatake Kakashi noticed nighttime. The breeze is crisp in its rush, the place's becoming too small for its own good and the camp's beacon was damp ash from the downpour which swept the fields of Konoha's southern borders minutes ago, when the team had to head out and undertake the given mission. He imagined a picturesque circumstance, considering his rank, but relentless buzzards of nature's nuisances are taking this seamless mindset away from him, away from time and away from home – the white-haired scarecrow wakes up. 

The sky was done weeping, and it's the wind's turn to swerve its zenith's haste.

"You're awake," were his first unsteady words as Aburame Shino stood firm. Seemingly resolved and almost ready to engage to battle, so his lethargic eyes said.

"Rare insects come out after downpour,"

"So you say."

The scarecrow almost failed to notice the sound of footgear against the humid soils. Aburame Shino is stoic, seemingly arcane as those sunglasses hide his stance over happenstances called human discourse; as far as the distance between them can go that is, for the white-haired copy-nin can only be as casual as he can get. "Hinata..."

But this time his audition can hear the slightest sound of everything as the brown-haired shinobi continues, "...will have to recover when we get back."

"I told her not to heal me,"

"...but I wonder if she really will recover," Hatake Kakashi swivels, hands gloved in his pockets holding his anxiety back like ten thousand needles pricking torment not from the certainly polar temperature of midnight but from a riposte even his sharingan cannot fathom. There was nothing to decipher, but the words are wedge, ever so sharp.

"You were the one who stole the scroll."

* * *

**Psychedelic Soul**

**_Psychedelic Soul_**

* * *

The cherries howl unhurried but agitated as soon as the clouds metamorphosed into swirls, voicing out their woes as cerulean become psychedelic hue. Whilst the surviving chuunins create for themselves re-affirmations to their vow to the Lightning's jounin leader, their minds look for time's generosity to escape the fire orbs which kept looming despite the barricades of lightning they have created for themselves – all these while the night is too ashen even for Shino's sight behind the seemingly stark glasses. Ebisu counters, flexing, a retort of the body against the rebel jounin.

"I distract them, you give out your best offense," Ebisu uttered as flares start dance together around his mouth.

"What if they survive? The leader is a jounin–"

"Hey, I already gave you the spotlight so don't let me steal it from you." The kikai's war dance has already embarked on appropriating territories then, amassing themselves, like an art connoisseur while they paint Shino's coat anew, stitches of black and purple and the Aburame has millions of eyes with everything to see and anything to protect.

"Just... uh, don't let them get me, ok?" The other chides, body contracting at the destruction bugs' hums of war. His fingers touches themselves, feeling the same cold metals with mental images of gravity against force when his right foot vaults, just in time to deflect the ragged neon lines up above the eddying clouds. He alights on the toothed granites previously christened as the tower's walls, catching himself with another hurdle as the moonbeams strike upon his eyes darkly. An encore, he thought; and three shurikens were all he needed.

"I will not fail you Sandaime!"

_Shuriken Kagebunshin no Jutsu._

Metal against the moon and the townsfolk is a syndicate of fascination and fear at the same time. Ashen night illumine itself as weeping cherries fell too sketchy, while one shuriken multiplies into three, and many others are shooting stars at the people's sight, wide-eyed, like winter time's festival when it was clear indication of bloodshed. The first star misses, hitting the hard soils.

"...an explosive tag!"

"Duck!"

The jounin's summoned energy cavities orbit at the shuriken's movements as the chuunins skirt themselves for survival when they lounged their weakened bodies down the seemingly safe loams, while their minds once again find time's generosity to launch their own arsenals, endeavoring to match the speed and force of the metallic stars; all violent and loud. Flaring up and the jounin's energy orbs keep nullifying some more shurikens, the chuunins letting their own tinny kunais, while the rest of the night cried of explosions.

* * *

Pursing his lips, closing his eye as chakra flows to his body. 

A soothing gesture of remediation begetting him to see more colors than a human can possibly see.

Hatake Kakashi was then as good as an academy student this time, an adolescent of an unconscious mind and a heart too vigilant it can even hear the other's cadence every time her hand blinks with a hue ever so faintly, every time her hand grazes the sweats on his shoulder, sweating from the deafening sounds of the all-seeing lass' frail gasps while he feels like he's breathing her skin.

And the cavern shall be vehement when it crumbles; standing onto earth's demise when the stars blinked over the azure skies for the last time as his eyes secures a sight, a sight too beautiful it burns like the sun. He will wake up at the sound of the chirping larks as the soft glow of the morning hints spring time, and he's ten years younger while she remains the same – raw and innocent, insecure but a mystery to behold.

His timid, almost young self held for himself a decent animal.

She will smile, a lifetime's acquisition for him as his grasp tightens but gently on her hips when spring waves hello with a cool breeze and a thousand flora, and her eyes will be a noble's absolute sight, and he reveals his face, and the veins on her face will gradually disappear when her body compensates from absence of enough energy to keep her sight matchless enough for a genjutsu, and her healing technique will eventually die out and they'll both leave themselves open for death to come, and the cavern will still be the same cavern when the white-haired scarecrow's teammates come back.

"I'll... Ka-Kakashi-sensei… I will ask–"

"...Hinata!"

* * *

His visible eye was trying to be lethargic, aloof like mere observer when his sight travels the friendless sky, for even the clouds had their own temper against the stark heavens – for everything seemed to be blameless when at the core of his universe everything was soiled. But everything is sentimentally palliative within his callused rouge of a self whose actual perversion rested on anything raw and innocent – whilst the youngster behind cringes him. The brown-haired lad takes a hand out of his pocket, releasing a reconnaissance bug. 

"...but Tsunade-sama never overlooks," Shino continues, staring at flying kikai as it fades from his sight.

"What then is your point?" The other sighs, holding back a recoiled self.

He gazes the copy-nin, body indomitable from intimidation and still not giving anything away. "There's something wrong. And I'd like to know."

"Why?"

"Kakashi-sensei..."

"Are you his boyfriend?"

There was a sharp sight between them.

"Why do you rejoin like that Kakashi-sensei? It interests me for I happen to be a comrade, wherefore I happen to be her teammate for years."

A discernible eye hides a green-eyed monster with a virtually believable naivety. "Blame it on Icha-Icha,"

"You're teammates you say," he then continues, "...so I guess you can approximate the reason I was sent here."

"So it was true."

Kakashi looks with intent, a curious soul seeking for more sentimental analgesia. It was the unparalleled occasion where both made an enduring conversation, down by the damp shrubs, distanced once in a while with exchanges of sighs. The Aburame lad puts his hands back on his coat while an eyebrow rose to find a more plausible outlook. "...but if Hiashi-sama wanted her dead and enemies recovered her body the clan's secrets will still be spoiled."

The white-haired man takes his stride at the humid loam, pebbles against his footgear, walking towards the other's inquisitive psyche when an arm reaches out, still mustering the sufficed force to stifle a heart and mind who knew truth all too well. His palm grazes his shoulder, tight but placid. "Don't think too much, Shino."

"But I–"

The sharingan man was already walking towards the forest however.

* * *

Destruction bugs have seized the air when their flight overwhelms the skies darkly, ever indistinct when the illumined metallic stars are overwhelmed as the bugs paint the sky dim, flying and almost swerving themselves while their buzzing hums of combat register foreboding onto everyone's anxiety. While the other side characterized itself with flanking violent clouds and chirping of thunders, Shino's territory is fathomed by an army of miniature shadows of abolition, taking the air while some ready themselves on the soils, digging, hiding until the next directive hums from the brown-haired's psyche. 

The village people on the other hand cannot tell the difference when darkness ignites their eyes.

The dust settles. Many other kunais and shurikens rest on the earth, explosive tags nullified and the rest are barely breathing. Ebisu's offense is not as devastating but the detectable craters has left one chuunin dead, two others wincing, and a jounin juggling around his resolve. There was no escape even if it meant on the physical sense – nobody can grant them anything. The Lightning is a village known to deviate from typical politics and governments, and this mission is a risk in itself; the scrutiny of the mighty, he thinks to himself.

The jounin's own absolute defense glows as he feeds them more chakra. Considering his knowledge of the Aburames' warfare, he would need these orbs to divert the destruction bugs while he and his subordinates launch their own offense. If it weren't the Raikage's direct orders, and his endeavors to muddle through the power struggles happening between the hidden villages – with alliances broken and a handful of coalitions secretly made – he will object with this suicide.

'_Mission failed. Looks like Konoha still lives up to its rank among other villages,'_

_Kikaichuu: Arare. _One murky sphere flies towards them like cannonball.

"Evade them or be dead!" the seemingly rebel jounin rejoined as two others soar weakly in the sky, avoiding another orb of destruction bugs.

Another one flies, colliding against the earth as they pour themselves out, dispersing and excavating the ground, smearing the loam bleakly. A sphere takes hold of one chuunin as the jounin leader notices with the former's exclaims as the destruction bugs percolate his skin in hostility, stealing his chakra while the female bugs transplant their eggs for their army to clone itself.

'_Shit.' _The leader's own defensive chasms are not immune to kikaichuus' acts of aggression when they are burned up; when these kinds of defenses are exactly the bugs' Eden, eating away the energy. The Lighting jounin hurdles, seemingly flying as his body commands against the miniature entities of destruction, releasing his own offense as his mouth lets his own fiery spheres loose, burning these miniatures.

His eyebrow raises. This has pissed the psyche and ego of the Aburame genius.

'_Sheesh Shino, that's lame jutsu.' _The lad looks up at the Konoha jounin like reading a thought.

With a complex of seals, his palms graze the ground as his chakra sends a new directive. _Kikaichuu: Tsumoji_.

With their own self-styled caverns, the destruction bugs readied underneath the earth are vortexes of clouds as they churn in spiral motions. Ten cyclones, fast-paced and antagonistic against any other obstruction, even raring to go to death's end as they ensnare another chuunin, making him afloat like a bird as more destruction bugs stream themselves to their victim, planting a new breed of kikais as they wolf his chakra away, leaving enough energy for the eggs to hatch.

_Chakra Kaihou. _The jounin's energy permeates; visible to the eyes with a slight smolder, yellowish in nature as he summons his own chakra, burgeoning his physicality as the lone survivor of the mission gives himself the final risk.

"He's ready to die," Ebisu has whispered aloud, perching himself lower when he realizes the trajectory of the enemy's future punch. "Shino!"

With sufficed strength the Aburame shifts his right foot forward, charging as he skips backwards, picturing the punch in his mind. The jounin emerges from the haze as the kikais deflect the lightning blow in swift reflexes of their wings. He misses, extending the flow of his energy as it paralyzes the brown-haired.

"Even if you avoid the punch itself you're still as paralyzed," he continues, running up again to strike another as the kikaichuu master tries to duck, the former's knee hitting his gut, and with a hiss from the latter he takes another blow. Ebisu alights from the ragged rooftop while his teammates for the mission dashes through the ground like a broken doll, with a flinched face and a broken sunglass but still hiding his eyes.

'_Like I've thought He's not that good at taijutsu.'_

"Oi bald man, I'm here, I have the spotlight."

He swivels his head, sighing never for reprieve. His hands exhilarates with lightning while his shoulder glow with a pouring chakra.

_Rai-hien. _His body dances in a pace even the Konoha jounin's eye barely sees, a human projectile while his hand is a bomb. With a split second to steer clear, Ebisu coerces himself as chakra decants from his body coils, his own translation of _chakra kaihou_ as it glows his body pallid like a moon laying in the earth as the strike connects to his chest as his energy tries to deflect, amassing themselves as his body reverts whilst his chakra shields his chest, his internal organs – visible in neon whiteness and the enemy winces in frustration.

Ebisu nevertheless rushes against the wall of rocks.

"That's some interesting defense, a quick one at that," the other remarks, preparing for another strike. _'My chakra's suddenly diluting. I should get this over with.'_

'Hien... I reckon that's Asuma-san's signature move,' the other weighs up. He gets by from the damage, coughing for relief as his body adjusts from the previous coercion of energy, standing up. '...and combining the wind-based with lightning. He's no joke.'

"Sheesh. I've only been promoted y'know buddy," he chides, smiling as his own glasses fall to the ground.

"I... I won't lose. I may have been fighting the previous days but I have one of the largest reserves of chakra in our village,"

"Our village? Beh... so you say," he says, taking a glance at the unconscious Aburame. 'If that's so I just have to seal his chakra...'

"You can seal my chakra,"

Ebisu winces, coughing up some more for air.

"...but I got the speed of ten shinobis. Good luck."

His fingers are a composite of scrupulous signals and responses by then, just like how Sandaime taught him. He's a seemingly optimistic akin to the blonde fox's haughtiness, but at times where the line between life and death is obscured enough for his village's end, his mind is as realistic as any other shinobi, but idealistic to their means. He sighs. Three points ablaze at the enemy's sight, one in his front while two others behind him are sunbeams of whiteness as they bracket together with the pulsating orb. The enemy watches on with a swiveling head, gritting his teeth.

Going useless this time, the destruction bugs have returned to the Aburame, deep within his bruised body.

"You can't!"

_Fuuinjutsu Sanhoufuuin._ A triangle of hollow as the light reaches upward to seal away the jounin of speed and auxiliary strengths, a three-dimensional cage to seal away the thriving danger as the points glow more passionate, almost blinding even Ebisu as the light concentrates itself at the focal point – within the cage, and the earth beneath him moves with little earthquakes.

The Lightning jounin exhales. _Rai-hien!_

"Shit!"

Like a glass, ever so delicate and frail when the sealing technique fails to finalize itself as the cage's surfaces shatters in a soundless wreckage, disappearing like a flash of lightning as the enemy's stance looked all too familiar to the Konoha jounin. Running like a bullet and striking like five explosive tags, Ebisu yearns suddenly for home when there was nothing to be apprehensive about, even to Death.

All this as the adversay carries on.

* * *

Time passes by too quickly soon as Hatake Kakashi's untrained eyes lay themselves at the collapsed, almost-limber body of Hyuuga Hinata – all the while as he walks for all dreaminess, zephyr like the needles which shrink his heart away, swelling again as her unconscious body is a sharp edge to the all too wounded soldier – just staring, knowing nothing else. He wages war with his own naivety; for he wasn't a symbol of remediation itself – if only sharingan can heal. 

The grotto screams of stillness when the torches are the only noisy people around. His sight wheels to find something, like an improvised breather he can make, like comfort and an awaking byakugan heiress. She strikes him like nighttime's warmth but in an anxious way and the night itself clears him away.

He removes all remaining cloth which previously had enough fabric to be called a clothing. He takes the furry lines of her torn sweaters; he knifes the remaining rags with delicate touches, accompanied with a whispering sliver with his kunai. He heaves a deep breath with the distant winds, while the overcast shadows deem his sight from the enormity of his endeavor.

He shifts his body, welcoming the torch's light. It was rhythmically brutal; the way his hands collide against her body while the touch are blades of grass to him, smooth too sensitive. They speak both of silence, meaningful for the scarecrow and non-existent at the depths of her ignorance; an enchantment with every shift of his hands, trying to remember the body points which hid wakefulness and triggered only by a touch.

His mind rummages for memory while his hands delves the collarbones, going through depths; the way his sight trying to recede from utter scrutiny – her shoulder blades now, and his right hand travels her back. Her knitted shirt vaguely moves at his hand's direction as his arms are resting place for Hinata's body when a familiar sight catches him.

A seal like Neji's several inches below her left shoulder blade; only centimeters in size but a limitation larger than life.

A pressure from Kakashi's fingers at the perfect points, somewhere in the middle of her collarbones, and several centimeters away from the seal and the all-seeing heiress opens her eyes, activating her byakugan with a gasp even the scarecrow had to squirm too silently for his own good when red taints themselves awkwardly.

She remains on his arms, flesh and blood while she wonders the happenstances. He stares, never feeling his arms this strong before.

"I... I told you not to heal me... and you've fainted."

"I... Kakashi-sensei–"

He tries to free her.

"All your questions... will have to wait,"

"...I–"

"I have to re-open some body points to keep you... awake."

"Kakashi-sensei... please don't–"

"Of course. Not even Shino."

* * *

A flicker of energy bursts randomly as they strike the walls, a maiming the nearby boulders as Ebisu gawps at the motionless Lightning jounin, a meter away and a distance which saved his life. The jolts have extended themselves however, and the Konoha jounin is numb figure, with only his sight to uncover what has happened. The other's right arm stays still in mid-air, still streaked with jolts of energy. 

"Wha–"

Ebisu shifts his sight to the Aburame youngster, lying on the ground with only a cough to indicate he's still alive. His left palm is sprawled, touching the earth as he notices little punctures as destruction bugs crawl towards it. He weighs up the consequentiality, shifting his vision to the enemy.

'_He compensates his lack of genius with taijutsu.' _"I've discovered a new way to breed my bugs," he says as the enemy's skin ruptures in slow motion while the eggs hatch, mutating themselves with the kind of chakra it's been nourished with – a hornet of destruction only as big as a typical kikai, with only enhanced speed to boast. His skin on his nape breaks apart, revealing the new breed as another army springs up from the corpses of his comrades.

"Kikaichuu: Yajiri," the Aburame whispers as he launches his final assault.

His body transgresses the laws of his body. The quakes beneath him darken as destruction bugs surfaces, edging to his foot in a seemingly slow tempo while his body relinquishes his chakra. An outburst of the terrain and the kikai bugs have sent rocks flying while they soar almost with steel wings, circling him while the others travel his body and the new army hatches. A more violent vortex this time – an individuated attack, and the Lightning jounin fades with time as the bugs consume the reserves he's been proud of.

Aburame Shino looks up the skies as the cruel clouds cowers from the beauty of the moonless firmament. It echoes an anger, signaling a downpour as a drop trickles against his glasses. Shidarezakuras are done weeping, and it's the heaven's turn to mourn over the blood-stricken night.

* * *

_tbc._

_A/N: If you haven't played Narultimate Hero 3, too bad. The jutsus are there if you unlock them. Epilogue is already in editing stages, so yay, no more ciphered fic. _


	9. Epilogue

"What do you mean Kakashi?" 

"I told her the test of skill excuse, Tsunade-sama."

"??"

"..."

"I... see. I'm guessing that Shino knows it too then."

"It took some time before I completely figured it all out."

"I'm sorry everyone, Hokage-sama, but I feel left out, I feel like this're all ciphered,"

"..."

"Hiashi took Hinata in the front line. I reckon his reason was to test Hinata's skills as member of their clan… which is the same old excuse when you try giving up one's liaison with the clan itself."

"What... what do you mean Hokage-sama?"

"It is true that certain enemies are after clan secrets Ebisu. But that doesn't mean you have to put your clan member as bait. I was suspicious about this when he requested that separate mission, so I have to assign someone else to take watch."

"You mean Kakashi was sent to protect the girl?"

"He volunteered."

'_Volunteered.'_

"Hokage-sama... as comrade and teammate–"

"I also thought of that too."

"This feels awkward. Now she's like those Lightning shinobis."

"Of course, either Hiashi will deny this or we've found out. I hated to actually approve the request, but there's no confirming when you've actually seen it. Anyway, I want you three to never disclose this to anyone. The mission will resume in 24 hours, I want report one week after–"

"!"

"...Shizune."

"Tsunade-sama, the porter of the main house says Hiashi-sama cannot make it. He's sick."

* * *

**Psychedelic Soul**

_**Epilogue**_

* * *

"She overworks her men." 

"Why? You got another mission?"

"I'm eating. Wanna come?"

"Is that a date Ebisu?"

"Come on Anko, if I'm asking you out on a date your apartment would be a room of flowers already,"

"..."

"..."

"I haven't checked it yet."

"..."

"You wish. I'd like some barbecue and a chamomile tea please,"

"Coming right up. What's yours miss?"

"Same."

"..."

"..."

"So…"

"Yeah."

"Kurenai should be here any minute, and Raidou's still acting embarrassed Sheesh."

"Hey, you were the one who revealed his too big of a secret,"

"Yeah but why the heck should you be ashamed?"

"…"

"Besides it's not like it's not unusual here,"

"..."

"..."

"So what was the close-door meeting about?"

"Hahaha... you're just introducing some topic to converse about before you really give me your true intention,"

"Hey that's mean."

"But it's a confidential mission... too bad."

"It really sucks when you have those kinds of missions, ne?"

"Yeah, like we can't be normal civilians doing civilian things,"

"How many confidential's did you have since you became a ninja?"

"Hmm."

"..."

"About three. Oh yeah, four counting now. I just got promoted, it's not like Hokage will assign you those kinds when you're only chuunin,"

"I guess so. But wait, I know chuunins who's been assigned to those,"

"Yeah, either he happens to pass by and got involved, or the mission has an attachment to him."

"..."

"Hey Kurenai. Asuma! I thought you're angry or something,"

"…"

"?"

"..."

"..."

"Green tea,"

"Uh, yeah, same, and some barbecue too."

"Coming right up."

"Little Ebisu here got a confidential."

"Yeah? Is it a good thing or a bad one?"

"…...both, I think, Kurenai."

"Most confidentials are no good for me,"

"Why?"

"It's always something threatening to everyone. Or to anyone."

"Yeah... tell me about it."

* * *

"I'm sure you know what this means," 

"Yes... yes, Shino-kun,"

"..."

"Sha-shall we tell Kiba-kun?"

"He doesn't need the truth. It gets him too... boisterous."

"..."

"..."

"Everything… is going to be different from now on Hinata."

"..."

"Are you joining the exam?"

"..."

"You're stronger than anyone else joining the exams this time,"

"...how–how do you know, Shino-kun?"

"We're the best reconnaissance team as you also know,"

"..."

"The Sand siblings are already appointed. You can take out Kiba. The only obstruction you have is Haruno Sakura of Team Seven."

"I've already... given-I already gave my slot to my sister,"

"Take it from her. Challenge how your mighty clan scrutinizes everyone."

"..."

"...I have some preparations to make, I have to leave early tomorrow."

"...okay."

"...it's a prospect to look forward to, especially for some."

"...some?"

"Naruto… uhm..."

"!!!"

"See you."

"..."

* * *

"Well I gotta go train Hinata today," 

"Train her genjutsu? But I thought genjutsu's a no-no to byakugan,"

"Yes Anko. But we're trying to push her byakugan to the limit,"

"She can still be afflicted with it?"

"With an S-rank genjutsu, yes,"

"I'm playing... I'm playing shogi with Shikamaru,"

"Darn, everyone's off somewhere,"

"Why don't you want to accept a cell anyway Anko?"

"..."

"..."

"?"

"Well I don't like history repeating itself,"

"Well then try changing it,"

"I can't. If I do it'll take too much time. Maybe when I'm real promoted."

"See 'ya."

"I gotta go."

"..."

"..."

"So Ebisu..."

"...what?"

"I reckon you didn't finish the film."

"Ah... yes the film,"

"What happened next?"

"...where were we?"

"I forgot."

"..."

"Ah yes, the Mist festival."

"Mist festival..."

"Yup. Does it end there?"

"Somewhat."

"How?"

"I've told you the music thing right?"

"No."

"I did. The glass music."

"Uhm... okay, go on then."

"So the girl watches as the male jounin takes his time with music, meticulous and all that, moving his fingers in spontaneity. She listens at the sounds, sort of enticed by the way the male jounin moves his body to synchronize with music. She observes how the tones get a pattern for itself,"

"How?"

"Like when a certain set of tones're done they get repeated all over again. She listens carefully. She stares at the jounin who pretends he's not seeing the girl, and the girl warms herself up with cider when she realized the music was a code,"

"...a code?"

"Yeah. Like Morse."

"Uhuh,"

"So she tries to knit those tones together so she can figure out what he means to say. This time the camera focuses on each other's assets, if you know what I mean. And then she whispers, 'I'll be waiting by the cherries'. So she looks around the place for some cherry, but she can't find anything. So too bad for her, she thought,"

"Too bad?"

"Maybe the male jounin was talking to somebody else. So she slackens herself by the seats after the cider drink, and the music plays a different tone. It's a different message this time, and she listens carefully. She whispers, 'by the cherry springs'. Like hell Mist was full of springs,"

"That was funny."

"Anyway. She's confused, like he's rendering him too many messages. She questions herself, she questions the motives. The performance stops and male jounin exits himself. She made a resolve on herself to confront the guy and ask herself without those fucked-up messages trying to be romantic or something,"

"Rough."

"So she follows him. She sees his figure walking slowly. She calls his name, but he doesn't look back. She screams her name but he won't look, until finally she realized she was in a genjutsu."

"Stupid plot."

"Well... you're still listening right? So a genjutsu. She realizes it's been an illusion, and there they are back at the pouring fields, both of them wet, both of them flustered from some obvious reasons. The guy watches her. The girl questions his motives, she asks all there is to be told. Of course, it's the I-like-you thing. She says she doesn't like him–"

"Aww."

"...yet. So let it blossom. But that was just a lame dialogue, because they invited themselves to the nearest inn to dry themselves up. She takes the room to change while the guy takes the bathroom because he freaking says he respects her. Next thing you know, she was already asleep, probably tired from too much routinely sparring. He smiles, gets a blanket to cover her body... before of course taking peek. Her cleavage was a nosebleed, and her supple fair skin is velvety to his touch. Her hair is silken, and she does not snore. That's picture perfect."

"You didn't have to add the snore thing,"

"...but the girl wakes up when the blanket touches her body. They stare at each other, both blushing. Her fingertips begin to move as they graze his face, his neck... his collarbones, and the guy reaches himself out to kiss her, a deep kiss like ever."

"So much for respect huh?"

"You've read the Icha-Icha?"

"Some parts."

"Then you know what happens."

"What was the ending?"

"They never married. But they had an affair and get time for themselves every now and then. Like sex session or something."

"Sex session. Real funny."

"I gotta run some errands for Konohamaru's self-training 'coz I'm on a mission tomorrow, so..."

"Yeah yeah, I have some reports to make too."

"I'll see you at our own sake session?"

"Yeah. I'll invite Raidou and Iruka, get them drunk and all that crap!"

"You're such a rude fuckhead."

* * *

It was going to be Tuesday morning as sketchiness passes as freshest air when the white-haired scarecrow sees the afterglow of the moonbeams by the window, vaguely at that but diverts him nevertheless. The room is dark, the bed sheets travel across his arms and his eyes are still transfixed in the swarthy stark cobalt skies. There were no stars, he realizes, and the breeze is uncharacteristically gentler, and warm. He shifts his body, mustering his mind yet again from restlessness, and the lines on his pillows get more delineated as he places his arms' weight on his nape. He thinks about the coming days, the psyche's days of exultation, the end of all reality at the rogue heart's adventures as he takes her into places she herself didn't know exist. 

And the face – never fail to emanate draftiness.

He puckers his lips, his mind smirks at the thoughts as his legs flex at the headstrong will – and with his moving sight he sees the shadows on the ceiling, wandering against the light, and he soon realizes the gust jazzing with the curtains, gradually growing colder. He goes out of bed, feeling his collarbones – and yawning – taking slow strides towards the window and realizes it was open all night long. The daybreak shall exist anew in the next hours, and as he feels the last cold zephyr of midnight he wishes for himself some more places to think about.

He dons his same 'ole clothes. Remove the useless sleeping clothing for slumber is a costly purchase in times where the psyche sees too much hue on everything, on anything, in times where the mind travels, in time where compulsions are akin to a schedule.

A routine grown from the depths of a metrical body and he slips out the window. He takes a long sigh, and carries on, flexing himself like a colorless sight in the air, inaudible to the people dead to the world. The resonance of an uptight arm tastes saccharine on his blue eye while sweat from hours of her body's strains felt like fresh waters of spring. Hyuuga Hinata is a thought while at the same time the persevering soul as she throws her arms out by the backyard of shrubs beside the historic tree, the witness to the internal struggles of the Hyuuga clan.

She takes her time, her fingers rhythmic as it dances with the cool breeze of midnight while the hiding scarecrow screamed silence as she prances herself, her gait conscientious like a good how-to book. Tonight was committed to chakra control, and it was Kakashi's favorite night of all; the dewy breeze and the jazzing lithe body, the delicate fingers as they run him like a blade, ever too sharp, ever bleeding to his heart's content.

Her tresses swivel in fast motion as she exhales a suspicious breath. Miasmic eyes met with a rapt sharingan, but Kakashi cannot outline the depths of those eyes, if she was really seeing him. She relaxes herself, letting her byakugan fade when the need for respite reached her resolve. She sits by the boulder, coughing up some more air as her grip on the water jug loosens after some sip. There was a lull of moments, and this is where the infamous copy-nin steals more look than ever, his sharingan activated, waging war with time as sharingan slows time down to savor some more images, where three seconds worth of Hinata's pale collarbones, with her locks falling from her shoulders, almost meant three hours of harmony of the body and mind.

She seems to stare at nothingness, now walking in slow pace as she resumes her practice. This time was now committed to fast reflexes, or so she tells herself when the sight of the white-haired scarecrow flashes through her mind. Kakashi was a genius, but he never was in these times when the girl of absolute sight can see more than he thinks she can.

Fifty-seven meters, southeastern by the discarded Kurama residence.

She removes her downy jacket, her meshed shirt aesthetically turning her into a shinobi. While her mind sought solutions to a querying mind as to why she was nourishing the other's necessity, her heart tackles it all too violent, so much so it was even obvious from her flustered face.

Even with the golden-haired fox, her audacity can only range as far as exchanging heartfelt and hopeful words of hints; while here, she was feeding him with something to be psychedelic about. Never was Hinata a guiltless soul, for an attraction to the experienced was not unusual even within her clan. While the fox gives her hope, what does her choice elect between the two now that the scarecrow has shown more than she thought he could – truth?

For the heart is idyllic and adolescent, while the mind is expedient and realistic.

At the end of the depths, however, never was Ebisu a soul of explorations, nor was he the far-eyed type when people has delved themselves into a clandestine sorts of thoughts and exploits, but here he was, too far for them both and affirming his own feverish opinions, denying Kakashi's fiction as it discloses for all the prying souls to see. Ebisu watches in the distance as Kakashi's eyes breathe of her for the entire universe's vastness, while his bitter dreams taste the sweetest in tastelessness.

He is a thought and she was a queen; Hinata is traveling somewhere and but nowhere to be seen.

* * *

"You're back early," 

"Yeah Anko, something came up. My mission needs more shinobis than we expected,"

"How many hours are you delayed?"

"About thirteen hours,"

"So you're free this lunch?"

"Yeah. Bring the others, too."

"No. I like it to be special."

"It's not the date joke again Anko?"

"No... I just want to share a good 'ole bonding between us,"

"Uhm..."

"...?"

"I bet you haven't watched the second Icha-Icha?"

"You did? That's nice,"

"Yes. And I wanted to tell you about a young man obsessed with fairy-tales."

"...?!?!!"

"...and the beautiful, very beautiful colors we see here in Fire Country make anything a good story to tell."

* * *

_fin._

_A/N: Just the way I planned it to be; I never really thought of giving it a happy ending, but at least I've made Hinata confused. If you happen to miss anything than the aforementioned; then how unfortunate of you. By the way, thanks to Santeira, I appreciate the reviews. I "may" be retiring from writing, but I'll be active enough to read stories. And "lambaste" the others, if you know what I mean. Haha._


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